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Photograph by Morrison, Chicago 




THE 

PAROCHIAL SCHOOL 

A CURSE TO THE CHURCH 
A MENACE TO THE NATION 



An Expose of the Parochial School — An Appalling 
Account of Priestly Graft, Sacrilege and Im- 
morality — The Loss of Thirty Million 
Catholics in the United States, Etc. 



BY 



Rev. Jeremiah J. Crowley, 

A Catholic Priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, and an American Citizen. 



"I am convinced that Almighty God brought. Father Crowley to 
America to save the Catholic Church, and that the present scandal 
in Chicago — the most terrible that has ever occurred in America — was 
permitted by Providence to bring to a climax the reign of rottenness, 
that it might be unearthed, exposed and wiped out." — Archbishop 
Katzer. 



Published by the Author, 

Rev. Jeremiah J. Crowley, 

Sherman House, 
Chicago, Illinois, United States of America. 




DEC 28 1904 

CUSS *- XAc, Not 
COPY B. 





•Oh :■ 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1904, by 
Rev. Jeremiah J. Crowley, in the Office of the 
Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



Also copyrighted by the Author, in 1904, in England, and copy- 
right protection thereby secured not only in the United 
Kingdom and throughout the British Dominions, 
but also in all countries signatory to 
the Berne Convention. 



All translation rights reserved. 



DEDICA TION. 



I DEDICA TE THIS BOOK TO THE EMANCIPA TED 
CATHOLIC LAITY OF TO-MORROW. 



Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The Author Frontispiece 

Archbishop Falconio 20 

Cardinal Martinelli 57 

Photographic Copy of the Apology Insisted upon by Arch- 
bishop Quigley 65 

Photographic Copy of a Letter from Archbishop Falconio 67 

A Parochial School Principal 243 

A Purgatorial Memento 265 

For God and His Church!... 319 

Cardinal Satolli 359 



/ 
/ 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 
The Scope of this Chapter 21 

The Book. 

Catholic Priests and Prelates Determined to Destroy the Pub- 
lic School 21 

Parochial School Considered as It Is 21 

Sources of My Information 22 

Attitude of Bishop McFaul, Archbishop Quigley and Cardinal 

Gibbons 22 

A Hurricane of Hate 22 

Plain Speech Necessary and Commended by the Church 22 

Precedents 23 

Conservative in Statements 24 

Devotees of Bacchus, Venus and Graft 24 

Some Classes who are Especially Informed about Clerical Sin- 
ners, 25 

Other Dioceses Compared with Chicago 25 

A Warning against the Catholic Press 26 

No Attack on the Church 26 

Priestly Corruption Only Attacked 26 

No Attack on Christian Education 26 

The False Cry of " Scandal " 27 

Why Did not Arraigned Priests Demand an Investigation? 27 

To the Pope Shall be Sent a Copy of this Book 27 

The Author. 

Writes in Obedience to Insistence of Friends and Advisers 27 

Arrested and Begging Priests Representing Themselves as 
Father Crowley 28 



VI THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Personal Description 28 

Parentage 28 

Nativity , 28 

Dedicated to the Catholic Priesthood at Birth 28 

Early Training and Education 28 

Ordination to the Priesthood 28 

First Ministerial Labor in Ireland 29 

First Ministerial Labor in America 29 

Commendatory Letters 30 

Commendatory Editorials 31 

Return to Ireland 33 

Ministerial Labor in Ireland 33 

Defends a Helpless Protestant 33 

Arrested, " Tried " and Convicted 35 

Excerpts from Editorials. 35 

Jail Treatment 40 

Case Debated in British Parliament 41 

Released from Jail 41 

Excerpts from the Press 41 

Triumphal Return Home 41 

Address of Welcome from Schull and Ballydehob Branch of 

the Irish National League 44 

Address from Parishioners at Goleen 46 

Return to America 49 

Commendatory Letters 49 

Adopted into the Archdiocese of Chicago 51 

Appointments 51 

The Famous Chicago Controversy 52 

Sued at Oregon, 111., in Name of Archbishop Feehan 52 

Threatens to Publish a Full Account of the Sad Conditions Pre- 
vailing in the Archdiocese of Chicago 52 

Excommunicated Unjustly and Invalidly by Cardinal Martinelli 53 
The Ban of Excommunication Removed Without any Apology 
Being Made to Accused Priests, and Without any Promise 

to Refrain from Issuing Publication. . . 55 

Celebret Issued by Bishop Scannell, Agent of Cardinal Martin- 
elli 56 

Celebret Issued by Archbishop Feehan 56 

Celebrates Solemn High Mass 56 



m 



« * 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. Vll 

Cardinal Martinelli's Promises Broken 56 

Press Notices of the "Chicago Controversy": 

Leslie's Weekly 58 

The Ram's Horn 59 

The St. Louis Republic 60 

The Interior 63 

The Ram's Horn 64 

Archbishop Feehan's Death 64 

Archbishop Quigley Appointed to Chicago 64 

Archbishop Quigley Demands that an Apology be Signed 64 

Singled out for Persecution 66 

" Celebret " Defined 66 

Refuses to Sign a Lie 66 

Archbishop Falconio Succeeds Cardinal Martinelli as Papal Del- 
egate 66 

The Reply to a Letter from Archbishop Falconio 68 

Archbishop Falconio and Archbishop Quigley Meet in Alle- 
gheny, Pa 68 

Archbishop Falconio Exhibits a Petition of Accused Priests, 

Beseeching to be " Whitewashed " 69 

An Interview with Archbishop Falconio at Milwaukee 69 

Archbishop Falconio States that the Charges of the Twenty- 
five Protesting Priests were Duly Considered by Being 

Thrown into a Wastebasket 69 

Confidence in Pius X 69 

Loves Ireland 70 

A Naturalized Citizen of the United States 70 

Delights in American History 70 

Glories in American Citizenship 70 

Happy in Vocation to the Priesthood 70 

In the Catholic Church I was born, in the Catholic Church 

I have lived, in the Catholic Church I will die 70 

Not Unmindful of Seriousness of Position Taken in Openly Ex- 
posing Parochial School 70 

Champions of Parochial School have Wealth, Power and Pres- 
tige 70 

Relies Solely on God and Approbation of Decent Men 71 

" Simple Duty hath no Place for Fear " 71 



Vlll THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL, AND CATHOLIC CLERICAL 
HOSTILITY TOWARD THE PUBLIC SCHOOL. 

Historic Statement. 

Its Origin Explained by Bishop Spalding 72 

The Real Reasons for its Establishment 73 

Clerical Coercion of Catholics. 

Threatened with Hell-fire 74 

Jesuits Particularly Vicious 74 

Refused the Sacraments 74 

Archbishop Elder's Letter 75 

Dire Predictions 79 

Coercion by a Sodomite : 79 

Not Five per cent, of Catholic Men Favor Parochial School 31 

Catholic Hostility Toward the Public School. 

Annihilation of the Public School the Object 82 

Destructive Clerical Tactics 82 

The State Must not Educate the -Child 83 

Minority Rights 84 

A Division of the Public School Funds 85 

x\buse of the Public School 87 

Charged with Being Godless 89 

Charged with Frivolity and Depravity 90 

Charged with Breeding Socialism 92 

Charged with Causing Lynchings 93 

Scheme to Deteriorate the Public School by the Destruction 

and Prevention of Normal Schools 04 

Attacks on Public School Veiled and Open 96 

A Simulated Liberality 97 

On the Eve of an Aggressive Clericalism 98 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix 

CHAPTER III. 



THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE PAROCHIAL 

SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

What and Who 99 

Vatican History. 

Taken Exclusively from Works of Renowned Catholic Histor- 
ians 100 

General Immorality 101 

Unchastity and Simony 102 

Papal and Clerical Immorality 102 

Prostitution, Sodomy and Murders in Churches 102 

Gross Liberties by Artists 103 

Immoral Religious 103 

The Church Between the Ninth and Tenth Centuries 105 

Morals of the Clergy, A. D. 1303-1517 105 

Graft at the Papal Court 106 

Popes Influenced by Astrology 107 

The Plain Catholic People Saved the Church 107 

Corruption in the College of Cardinals. 

Graft, Immorality, Cruelty, Worldliness, Etc 108 

Incidents in the Lives of the Popes. 

Pope John XL, A. D. 931-936. 
Made Pope by His Infamous Mother 108 

Pope John XIL, A. D. 955-964. 
A Profligate, Indicted for Incest, etc 109 

Pope Benedict IX., A. D. 1033-1044. 
A Profligate. Gets Married 110 

Pope John XXIL, A. «D. 1316-1334. 
A Multimillionaire Ill 

Pope Urban V., A. D. 1362-1370. 
Indescribable Immorality 112 



X THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Pope Gregory XL, A. D. 1370-1378. 

States of the Church Revolt 112 

St. Catherine Denounces the Papal Court 113 

A Two-Headed Papacy 113 

Pope Pius II., A. D. 1458-1464. 

The Father of Several Children 115 

The Writer of Erotic Literature 116 

Pope Innocent VIIL, A. D. 1484-1492. 

Formerly Cardinal Cibo 116 

Buys His Election 117 

The Father of Two Children 118 

His Coronation 118 

Marries His Son in the Vatican; also Two Other Relatives. ... 118 

A Sumptuous Wedding Banquet — .120 

Reform 120 

Forged Bulls 120 

Clerical Sports 121 

Simony 122 

A Fourteen-Year-Old Cardinal 122 

New Means to Extort Money 123 

Pope Alexander VI., A. D. 1492-1503. 

The Most Infamous of the Iniquitous Popes 123 

His Memory Rots 124 

His Character ? 124 

Grossly Immoral 125 

Has Four Children 125 

Luxury 126 

Buys the Papacy 127 

One of His Mistresses 129 

Has a Son Born While Pope and Legitimates Him 129 

Makes his Daughter, Lucsetia Borgia, Regent 130 

A Pointed Poem 130 

Forever Infamous 131 

Muzzled the Press 131 

Energetically Repressed Immoral Heretics 131 

Pope Julius II., A. D. 1503-1513. 

The War Pope 132 

Formerly Giuliano della Rovere 132 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI 

Made a Cardinal in Youth 132 

Table Bill $4,600 to $6,900 Monthly 132 

Objectionable Ways to Raise Money 132 

Bribery in the Roman Court 133 

Had Three Natural Daughters 133 

Accused of Sodomy •. 133 

Pope Leo X., A. D. 1513-1521. 

Made Cardinal when Fourteen Years Old 133 

Lavishly Extravagant 134 

Least Fitted to Push Reforms 134 

Religion Secondary 134 

Table Bill Over $16,000 Monthly 135 

Indulgences. 

One Explanation of Decay of Spiritual Life 135 

In Connection with Jubilees 136 

In Relation to Pope Nicholas V 136 

Gold the Inspiration 137 

In Relation to Alexander VI. Gold Again 141 

Indulgence Graft and Luther 142 

Pope Hadrian VI., A. D. 1523-153-:. 

The Reverse of Leo X . 148 

Sincerely Reiigious 148 

Admits Corruption of Priests, Prelates and Pope.; 148 

Inaugurates Reforms 148 

Assails Luther . 149 

German States List 101 Grievances Against Rome 149 

Attempts to Economize 149 

Poisoned? 150 

Pope Paul III., A. D. 1534-1549. 

Trafficked in His Sister's Shame 150 

Excommunicated Henry the Eighth, King of England 150 

Pope Innocent X., A. D. 1644-1655. 

Lady Olympia 151 

Pope Alexander VII., A. D. 1655-1667. 

Nepotism 151 

Extravagance 151 



Xll THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Pope Alexander VIII, A. D. 1689-1691. 
Nepotism 151 

Pope Benedict XIII., A. D. 1724-1730. 

A Reforming Pope 152 

Clerical Corruption 152 

Pope Benedict XIV., A. D. 1740-1758. 
Disordered Finances 152 

Pope Pius IX., A. D. 1846-1878. 
An Infidel Secretary of State 152 

Pope Pius X., 1903. 
The Cardinals . .' 152 

The Vatican Assails Americanisms. 
The Issue Stated 154 

Americanisms. 

Human Equality 155 

Sovereignty of the People 156 

Freedom of Conscience, Speech and Press 156 

History of the Establishment of Freedom of Conscience in 
America 157 

Americanisms Enunciated by American Presidents. 

George Washington: Resist any Innovation upon American 

Principles 158 

John Adams : Venerates the Constitution 158 

Thomas Jefferson: Freedom of Conscience and of the Press... 159 

James Madison: Free Conscience and Free Press .159 

James Monroe: Equality, Sovereignty of the People 159 

John Quincy Adams: No Union of Church and State 160 

Andrew Jackson: Free Conscience and Free Press 160 

Martin Van Buren: The People the Source of Power. Church 

and State 160 

William Henry Harrison: No Government by Divine Right. 

Free Conscience, Speech and Press 161 

John Tyler: Popular Sovereignty. Foreigners must be Amer- 
icanized. Personal Liberties 161 

James K. Polk: Equality. Freedom of Conscience. A Treason 
to Mankind 162 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. Xlll 

Zachariah Taylor: Most Stable Government on Earth 163 

Millard Fillmore: Common Schools. Constitution the best ever 

Formed 163 

Franklin Pierce: America, a Beacon Light to the World 163 

James Buchanan: Richest Political Blessings Heaven ever Be- 
stowed 164 

Abraham Lincoln : America's Free Institutions 164 

Andrew Johnson: God's Hand in the Framing and Adopting of 
the Constitution. Equality. Education. Free Speech. Re- 
ligion. Popular Sovereignty 166 

Ulysses S. Grant: Personal Liberties. Free Pulpit, Press and 

School. The States of the Church. Education 167 

Rutherford B. Hayes: Education. Separation of Church and 

State 167 

James A. Garfield : The Constitution 168 

Chester A. Arthur : Popular Government 168 

Grover Cleveland: Popular Government. The Constitution. .. .169 
Benjamin Harrison: American Liberties, Blessings and Duties.. 170 
William McKinley: Popular Government. Six Free Things. 
Education. The Constitution. Fruits of American Sover- 
eignty. The Step of the Republic. The Nation's Hope is 

in the Public School and University 171 

Theodore Roosevelt: Free Schools. No Public Money for Pa- 
rochial Schools. Full Religious Toleration. Separation of 
Church and State. Immigrants must Revere our Flag. The 
Church which Remains Foreign is Doomed 172 

Vaticanisms. 

Against Equality, Freedom of Thought, Sovereignty of the Peo- 
ple, Freedom of Conscience, Freedom of Speech, Freedom 
of the Press, and Separation of Church and State. Cath- 
olic Church Should be Supreme in the State 174 

Laments the Lack of Ecclesiastical Authority in the Public 
Schools 177 

When Church and State Conflict, Obedience to the State Be- 
comes a Crime 177 

Church and State Cannot be Separated 179 

Separation of Church and State an Absurdity. Sometimes it is 
Worthy of Toleration when Situation Practically might be 
Worse — in the United States, for Instance 179 

Confirms and Renews all Censures of His Predecessors 181 

Not in America is Found the Most Desirable Status of the 
Church 181 



XIV THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Sighs for the Favor of the Laws and the Patronage of the Pub- 
lic Authority ". . 182 

Any Civilization Conflicting with Holy Church is a Meaning- 
less Name 182 

A Question. 

Does the Parochial School Teach Americanisms or Vatican- 
isms ? 183 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS. 

Who and What 184 

Two Illustrations of the Selection of Parochial School Superin- 
tendents . . . 186 

Unworthy Parochial School Principals and Assistant Principals 

Shielded 186 

Moral Inconsistencies of Superintendents.. ...194 

Thorough Supervision of Parochial School Practically Impos- 
sible 194 

Superintendents are not Answerable to the American People.. 196 
A Pertinent Question 197 



CHAPTER V. 

THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL PRINCIPALS AND ASSISTANT 

PRINCIPALS. 

Who and What . . . 19S 

Parochial School Principals Shield Each Other 202 

Cheap Politicians 203 

" Get Rich Quick " Investors 203 

Liberal Patrons of the Arts and Sciences at World's Fairs.... 204 

Nautical Clerics 208 

Dealers in Smut 208 

Brazen Hypocrites 209 

Malodorous Pedagogic Samples. 

Explanatory 209 

Rev. No. 1. A Forger 210 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV 

Rev. No. 2. A National Rounder 211 

Rev. No. 3. A Lover of Fast Horses and Fast Women. . . i . . .212 

Rev. No. 4. A Grocer 212 

Rev. No. "5. A Pugilist 212 

Rev. No. 6. A Fiend 216 

Rev. No. 7. A Doctor of Medicine 216 

Rev. No. 8. A Sot .217 

Rev. No. 9. A Gospel Pitcher 219 

Rev. No. 10. A Wounded Veteran .220 

Rev. No. 11. A Hat-Band Lover 220 

Rev. No. 12. A Wolf in Priest's Clothing 221 

Rev. No. 13. Ballad Singer 223 

Rev. No. 14. Celibacy Inexpedient .224 

Rev. No. 15. A Festive Fellow 225 

Rev. No. 16. An Equestrian Hero 226 

Rev. No. 17. A Cuspidore Martyr 226 

Rev. No. 18. A Dead Beat 227 

Rev. No. 19. A Brewer 227 

Rev. No. 20. A Sodomist _. 229 

Rev. No. 21. A Philanthropist 229 

Rev. No. 22. A Seductionist 231 

Rev. No. 23. A Debauchee 233 

Rev. No. 24. An Admirer of Little Egypt 235 

Rev. No. 25. A Ground Hog 236 

Rev. No. 26. A Monstrosity 237 

Rev. No. 27. A Preference for Black 241 

Rev. No. 28, Plus Scores and Scores. Devotees of Bacchus, 

Venus, Graft and Gambling 242 

The Gates of Hell " 244 



a 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL TEACHERS. 

Who and What 245 

Pedagogic and Other Handicaps 247 



CHAPTER VII. 



GRAFT. 

Parochial School Officers are Grafters 251 

Holy. Orders Graft 252 



XVI THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Promotion Graft 253 

Vacation Graft 254 

Anniversary Graft 254 

Baptismal Graft 255 

Penance Graft 256 

First Communion Graft 257 

Confirmation Graft 257 

Matrimonial Graft 258 

Extreme Unction Graft . . .260 

Last Will and Testament Graft .♦ 260 

Funeral Graft 261 

Cemetery Graft 264 

Purgatorial Graft 264 

Building Graft .266 

Incendiary Graft 267 

Sanitary Graft 268 

Corner Stone Graft 268 

Dedication Graft 269 

Consecration Graft 269 

Mass Graft 270 

Church Fair Graft 271 

The Paulist Father's Fair 274 

Poor Box Graft 275 

St. Anthony Graft 276 

Relic Graft 280 

Charm Graft 284 

Grotto Graft 284 

Holy Thursday Graft 285 

Good Friday or Holy Land Graft 286 

Holy Saturday Graft 286 

Easter and Christmas Graft 287 

Mission Graft -\ 288 

Revolving Candlestick Graft 293 

Candlemas Day Graft 294 

Indulgence Graft 295 

Special Collection Graft. 295 

Peter's Pence Graft .296 

Catholic University Graft 297 

Sodality and Lodge Graft 298 

Advertising Graft 299 

Sacramental Graft 299 

Savings Bank Graft 300 

Eleemosynary Graft 300 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV11 

Undertaking Graft 301 

Employment Graft 301 

" Pull " Graft 301 

School Procession Graft 302 

Commencement Day Graft 302 

Tuition Graft 303 

School Book Graft 303 

Accident Suit Graft . . 304 

Testimony Graft 304 

Naturalization Graft 305 

Janitor Graft 305 

Assembly Hall Graft 305 

Miracle Working Graft 305 

The Last Straw 306 

The Handling and Investing of Graft 307 

A Suggestion in Arithmetic 308 

Annual Income of Pastor of Small City Parish, $10,000 309 

Annual Income of Pastor of Large City Parish, $100,000 309 

Conclusion 310 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL PUPILS. 

Inadequately Instructed Secularly 313 

Irreligious Instruction 314 

Demoralized 316 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL AND THE LOSS OF THIR- 
TY MILLION CATHOLICS IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 

A Statistical Argument by a Catholic Authority 322 

Admitted by Bishop McFaul of Trenton, New Jersey, U. S. A. 324 

Admitted by Official Organ of Cardinal Gibbons 325 

Placing the Blame 325 



XV111 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

CHAPTER X. 



APAISM. 

Historical Statement 334 

A Catholic Cannot Become President of the United States. .. .337 
History of the Catholic Church in America 338 

The Causes of Apaism, and the Cure. 

The Parochial School Its Chief Cause 342 

The Federation of Catholic Societies 343 

Temporal Power , 350 

A Nuncio at Washington 353 

Blatant Boasting 362 

The Cure for Apaism 366 



CHAPTER XL 



THE EMANCIPATION OF THE CATHOLIC LAITY. 

The Laity Must Control Temporalities 372 

Laymen Were Formerly Trustees 381 

Laymen Ceased to be Trustees Because they Interfered with 

Priestly Drunkenness, Immorality and Graft 387 

An Impending Explosion 388 

Catholics Should Study the Catholic Bible, Particularly the 

Four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles: Commended 

by Leo XIII 388 

These Last Named Books Give the Very Words and Deeds 

of Jesus Christ 389 

The Acts of the Apostles Gives the Early History of the 

Catholic Church 389 

The Simplicity, Frugality, Unselfishness and Purity of the First 

Hierarchy 389 

The Fathers of the Church did not Occupy Palaces, Wear 

Princely Clothes and Receive Royal Incomes 389 

Laity Should Scrutinize the Confessional 390 

Punishment of Drunken and Immoral Priests 392 

Prescribed by the Council of Trent 394 

Clerical Excuses for Priestly Misconduct 395 

Judas 396 

St. Peter 396 

St. Augustine .397 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XIX 

The Catholic People Should Forsake Drunken, Grafting and 

Immoral Priests 397 

A Decree of the Church to this Effect 398 

Ecclesiastical Power, when it Destroys the Church, is In- 
fernal Power " 399 



«« 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL. 

Historical 400 

An Absolutely Necessary Institution 400 

The Safeguard of Freedom of Conscience, Free Speech and Free 

Press 402 

Prevents National Stagnation 404 

Appreciation of the Public School by Distinguished Catholics. 

Bishop John Lancaster Spalding 405 

Hon. John F. Finerty 406 

Religious Instruction. 

Religious Teaching in the Public School 406 

A Suggested Religious and Ethical Parliament 407 

A Sectarian Minority Dog-in-the-Manger 407 

Recommendations. 

A Warning to the Critical Friends of the Public School 408 

Non-Catholic Friends of the Public School Should Withdraw 
all Support from Catholic Institutions 408 

Catholic Public School Teachers Should Unite in Defense of 
the Public School 410 

An Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, (orig- 
inally Proposed by President U. S. Grant) 413 

Conclusion. 

The American People Should Treat as a Deadly Enemy of the 
Nation any Sect that Attempts to Undermine the Public 
School, or that tries to get Public Funds 415 

The Parochial School — A Curse to the Church, A Menace to 
the Nation 415 

The Appalling Exposures in this Book a Labor of Sorrow, and 
made in Obedience to Duty to Country, Church, and God. 415 




ARCHBISHOP FALCONIO. 






THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL 

A Curse to the Church— A Menace to the Nation. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



In this chapter the reader will find my reasons for writ- 
ing this book, and a brief sketch of my life to enable him to 
form an intelligent opinion as to the weight of my words. 

The Book. 

Catholic priests and prelates are determined to destroy the 
American public school. Their slogan, (suggested by the 
Roman cry against Carthage in days of old, " Delenda est 
Carthago") , is, The public school must be destroyed. The 
Romans had in view the maintenance of their commercial and 
military supremacy : the Catholic hierarchy has in view the 
selfish interests of its priests and prelates and not the true wel- 
fare of the Church or State. 

The Catholic hierarchy offers the parochial school as a 
substitute for the public school. I shall deal in this book with 
the Catholic parochial school as it is, and I shall show that it is 
a curse to the Roman Catholic Church, and that it is a menace 
to the Nation. 

The utterances of the clerical champions of the parochial 
school clearly show an intense hatred of the public school — 
an institution which the American people rightfully regard 
as one of the greatest bulwarks of their liberties. 



22 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

I shall show the general phases of the settled clerical plan 
now being carried out to encompass, if possible, the utter de- 
struction of the American public school. My information has 
its sources in personal experience and observation; conversa^ 
tions with priests and prelates ; the public utterances of Catholic 
ecclesiastics ; and the history of the school controversy which 
has raged, with more or less intensity, during many years. 

I shall show that the parochial school, as an institution 
for educating and training American youth, is hopelessly de- 
ficient by reason of the anti-Americanism of its board of edu- 
cation, the pedagogic incompetency and moral delinquencies 
of its officers, the inefficiency of its teachers, and the glaring de- 
fects in its curriculum. 

During the year 1903 Bishop McFaul, of Trenton, New 
Jersey, Archbishop Quigley, of Chicago, Illinois, and Cardinal 
Gibbons, of Baltimore, Maryland, three of the most prominent 
members of the American hierarchy, publicly expressed senti- 
ments which are radically antagonistic to the American school 
system. The secular and religious press of the continent free- 
ly quoted the utterances of these ecclesiastics, and storms of 
adverse criticisms were aroused. If the course of these pre- 
lates is pursued by the hierarchy certain things must inevitably 
follow. Animosities will be engendered among the American 
people which should have no place in the citizenship of our 
Republic. The Catholic Church will lose all of Her power 
and prestige in America. 

A hurricane of hate is brewing. I love the Catholic 
Church, and to save Her from destruction in America I write 
this book. 

I shall use very plain language. I am compelled to do 
so because I am writing for all classes and not solely for learned 
men. 

I shall not conceal trie truth. In, this I but conform to 
Catholic requirements as .will be seen by the quotations which 
follow. * • 




m • 



INTRODUCTORY. 2$ 

Pope Pius X. (the reigning Pontiff) said to Dr. Pastor, 
the celebrated historian of the Catholic Church : 

The truth is not to be feared. — The New World, Novem- 
ber 7, 1903, p. 13. 

Pope Pius II. said in a certain bull : 

He who remarks anything calculated to give scandal, even 
in the Supreme Head of the Church, is to speak out freely. — 
Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. Ill, p. 2/2. 

Cardinal Gibbons says that the Catholic Church has no 
secrets to keep back : 

There is no Freemasonry in the Catholic Church ; she 
has no secrets to keep back. She has not one set of doctrines 
for Bishops and Priests, and another for the laity. She has 
not one creed for the initiated and another for outsiders. Ev- 
erything in the Catholic Church is open and above board. She 
has the same doctrines for all — for the Pope and the peasant. — 
The Faith of our Fathers, p. 14. 

Cardinal Manning declared that truth in history should 
be supreme: 

The historica Veritas ought to be supreme, of which we 
have a divine example in Holy Writ, where the sins, even of 
Saints, are as openly recorded as the wickedness of sinners. 
— Notice "written for the first volume of Dr. Pastor's History 
of the Popes. 

Dr. Alzog, the renowned historian of the Catholic Church, 
stated that the historian should not conceal the possible short- 
comings of his church : 

Historical impartiality demands . . . that the histor- 
ian . . . shall frankly acknowledge and openly confess 
the possible shortcomings of his church, for silence here would 
be more damaging than beneficial to her cause. — Dr. Alzog's 
Manual of Universal Church History, Vol. I, p. 14. 

The celebrated Pere (Father) Lacordaire asserted that 
history should not hide the faults of men and Orders : 

" Ought history," asks Pere Lacordaire " hide the faults 
of men and orders ? It was not," he replies, " in this sense 




41 



24 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

that Cardinal Baronius understood his duty as an historian 
of the Church. It was not after this fashion the saints laid 
open the scandals of their times. Truth when discreetly told," 
he continues, "is an inestimable boon to mankind, and to sup- 
press it, especially in history, is an act of cowardice unworthy 
a Christian. Timidity is the fault of our age, and truth is 
concealed under pretense of respect for holy things. Such 
concealment serves neither God nor man." — Dr. Alzog's Man- 
ual of Universal Church History, — the Preface. 

The Great St. Gregory, the revered Hildebrand of the 
Pontifical Throne, once wrote : 

It is better to have scandal than a lie. — Homil. 7, in Eze- 
chiei, quoted by St. Bernard. 

Cardinal Baronius once said: 

God preserve me from betraying the truth rather than 
betray the feebleness of some guilty minister of the Roman 
Church! — Annates, ad. ann. H2$ x c. 12. 

Count de Maistre proclaimed: 

We owe to the Popes only truth, and they have no need 
of anything else ! — Du Pape, lib. ii. c. 13. 

St. Bernard said: 

I would not be silent when vice was to be rebuked, and 
truth defended. — Epistola 78, torn, i., p. 38. 

It will be alleged by the champions of the parochial school 
that my unfavorable views of it are founded upon unusual 
and infrequent facts of the moral delinquencies of its officers 
and the pedagogic incompetency of its teachers ; but I know 
whereof I affirm, and I solemnly declare that I am conservative 
in my statements. 

There is not a diocese or an archdiocese in America which 
has not priestly devotees of Bacchus and Venus — wine and 
women — and in the prominent dioceses and archdioceses there 
are scores upon scores of ecclesiastics who are the slaves of 
these goddesses. But the universal ecclesiastical vice is graft- 
ing. The American clergy, high and low, exhibit an insatiable 



INTRODUCTORY. 2$ 

desire for money. They seek and obtain it in the sacred name 
of religion — for God and Holy Mother Church! Many of 
the means they employ to secure it are not only questionable 
but criminal. Instead of preaching the Gospel of Christ 
they proclaim the message of mammon. The money acquired 
is spent, in the main, in the service of Satan. 

It is impossible for those who are not prelates, priests, 
monks or nuns to know how much sin there is in ecclesiastical 
circles. It is not difficult for me to understand how hard it 
must be for non-Catholics to believe that individuals, dedicated 
to the service of God by most solemn vows, can live in daily 
violation of their sacred covenants, and I know how extremely 
loath Catholics are to give credence to any report of clerical 
misconduct, no matter how well founded, as they have been 
trained from infancy to regard a priest as a holy man — another 
Christ. 

Policemen, railway and street car conductors, steamship 
officers, hotel proprietors, waiters, porters and cabmen know 
that I do not exaggerate in my descriptions of clerical sin. 
Hardly a day goes by in our great cities that policemen do 
not pick up drunken priests and also take them out of houses 
of shame. Railway conductors from all parts of America tell 
me that Catholic priests are among their toughest passengers. 
Steamship officers relate tales which make the heart sick. Ho- 
tel proprietors, waiters and porters tell facts which for numer- 
ousness and nastiness defy comparison. If policemen would 
suddenly become authors and tell what they know of sinning 
priests the world would hardly be able to contain the books. 
Cabmen, the knights of the whip, have as their most profitable 
customers clerical rounders, the knights of the cloth, whose 
chivalry vents itself in attentions to ladies who live in houses 
of shame. Catholic prelates understand full well the personal 
knowledge which these various individuals and others possess 
of priestly debauchery. 

I know that the conditions are appalling in the Archdio- 
cese of Chicago. I have been assured by an American Arch- 



26 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

bishop, whose former ecclesiastical positions ought to enable 
him to speak with the authority of personal observation and 
experience, that the conditions in Buffalo, New York City 
and other places are many times worse than they are in Chi- 
cago. If he were to speak to-day I believe he would say, in 
view of the additional light he has received on the Chicago 
situation, that New York City and Chicago are equals in ec- 
clesiastical rascality. 

I am well aware that this book will arouse the intense wrath 
of Catholic ecclesiastics, who hate the American public schools. 
Be it so! In this connection, Catholic laymen, permit me to 
warn you against being deceived by the official Catholic press. 
It will bitterly assail me. Its columns will be filled with villi- 
fication and vituperation. But who controls the official Cath- 
olic press? Priests, Bishops and Archbishops as a rule. 
These men will unite in bitter opposition to any publicity of 
sin. The editors of the official Catholic publications are under 
the thumb of ecclesiastical power. Woe to them if they show 
any independence of thought and action ! I have been grossly 
slandered in official Catholic publications, while in private my 
detractors have admitted that I was right in my course. This 
expose will bring upon my head torrents of written wrath from 
men who know that I reveal but a small part of the awful case 
in hand ; but these same writers in private conversation will be 
heard to say : " O, Father Crowley, God bless him ! is all right, 
but we have got to stand in with the authorities ; we have to 
look out for our bread and butter." 

My opponents will seek to befog the issue raised in this 
controversy by charging me with making attacks in this book 
upon my Church. In answer to this anticipated malignant ac- 
cusation I say now that / do not attack my Church; I attack 
solely its corrupt ecclesiastics. I am not fighting my Church 
and never will. I am fighting priestly corruption, and I will 
■fight it as long as God permits me to live. 

My opponents will also say that I am attacking Christian 
education. Let it be remembered that I am not attacking 



INTRODUCTORY. 2J 

Christian education, but that I am dealing with the parochial 
school as it is in America. I make war not upon the theory 
of Christian education, but upon the present practice, for the 
latter, under prevalent conditions, is devilish. 

The cry will be raised that by this publication I am giving 
scandal. My opponents will seek to blind the Catholic public 
by this false cry. Let the Catholic people remember that it 
is the only answer left to the debauched priests whose wicked- 
ness I expose. The scandalizers of our Holy Church are 
not the men who protest against clerical impurity, falsehood 
and injustice; but they are the ecclesiastics whose lives are 
rotten, and the Church dignitaries who try to cloak the rotten- 
ness. 

Some of the grossest of the clerical sinners referred to 
in this book have been publicly arraigned by name. When 
this book becomes public property I look to see them adopt a 
much-abused attitude. They have already expatiated upon the 
hardship of their position in not being able to say a word in 
self-defense until the charges are proved ! ! If they were anx- 
ious to have the charges proved, why did they not ask Rome 
to thoroughly investigate them? But there was no difficulty 
in the way of their appealing to the civil courts, and they did 
not. They knew there were laws in this country to protect 
the slandered. Were there not penitentiaries for criminal li- 
belers ? Yes, there were, but those penitentiaries were also for 
clerical thieves, adulterers, rapists, seductionists and sodomists. 

One of the first copies of this book will be sent to the Pope. 
I hope that the Pontiff, as soon as he is acquainted with the 
real condition of the public school controversy in America, 
will decree a policy for American priests and prelates which 
shall be in entire harmony with American history and ideals. 

The Author. 

Yielding to the insistence of my friends and advisers I 
insert this biographical sketch, not for any self-laudation, but 



28 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

to enable my readers to see what manner of man I am so that 
they may form an intelligent opinion as to the weight of my 
words, and also that a stop may be put to a gross imposition 
which is being practiced all over the country by wicked priests 
who assume my name when they are arrested by the police, 
and when they ask for financial help. To aid in carrying out 
these objects this book contains my photograph, and I state 
now that my height is six feet and three inches, and my weight 
is two hundred and fifty pounds. 

I was born November 20, 1861, in County Cork, Ireland — 
" The Island of Saints and Scholars." My parents 
were of Celto-Norman stock and belonged to the plain people. 
My father was a farmer of means. He died July 7, 1904. 
My mother's maiden name was Nora Burke. She died a few 
minutes after my birth, while I was being baptized, she having 
received the last rites of the church. My father thought I 
could not live, and immediately before the priest pronounced 
the words of baptism he made an offering of me to the priest- 
hood in the hope that God would graciously spare my life. 

When I was about five years of age I was sent to the Na- 
tional (primary) School. When I was seven years of age I 
became an altar boy, and so continued until I was fourteen 
years old, when I was sent from my native parish to Bantry 
for better educational advantages. I staid a year in Bantry, 
and I was then sent to the Model School at Dunmanway, where 
I remained nine months. I was then sent for three months to 
the Classical School at Skibbereen. When I was sixteen years 
of age I was sent to St. Finnbarr's College, Cork, where I re- 
mained four years. I passed the required examination, and 
was sent to St. Patrick's College (Seminary), Carlow, County 
Carlow (this being the oldest Catholic College (Seminary) 
extant in Ireland), where I remained four years and a half, 
and completed the prescribed classical, philosophical and theo- 
logical courses. 

I was ordained a priest of the Catholic Church on the 15th 
day of June, 1886, for my native diocese of Cork. My father 



INTRODUCTORY. 20, 

paid full tuition rates for my education from the time I en- 
tered the primary school until my ordination. 

My earliest thoughts were associated with the expectation 
that I would some day be a priest in the Holy Catholic Church 
and could stand at her sacred altars to offer up the Holy Sacri- 
fice of the Mass for the repose of the soul of my dear mother, 
whom I had never seen. 

My relatives, friends and neighbors expressed no other 
thought for me than that I was destined to be a priest. When 
I was at St. Finnbarr's College, being nineteen years of age 
at the time, my father came to see me, and to test the sincerity 
of my vocation to the priesthood he said to me, " A priest has 
a great many trials and troubles ; if you would prefer to follow 
some secular profession, there is the Queen's College (Univer- 
sity), I am willing that you should enter it now! " I replied, 
" No, father, I have but one desire in life, and that is to be a 
priest." My father expressed great joy over my reply, and 
he was supremely delighted to learn that I was blessed with a 
vocation. 

I said my first Mass in my father's house. I was ordained 
Tuesday morning, and I traveled all night to reach the home 
where I was born that I might there offer up my first Mass 
for the eternal repose of the soul of my mother. 

From boyhood I had the desire to go to America when I 
became a priest. Many of my friends had gone to the United 
States. I was ordained for the Diocese of Cork, but there 
was no vacancy in it, and I said Mass for some weeks as pri- 
vate chaplain to Bishop Delaney of Cork. The opportunity 
to go to America came to me then through the Very Rev. E. 
M. O'Callaghan, now Vicar-General of the Diocese of Man- 
chester, New Hampshire, and the Right Rev. Monsignor D. 
W. Murphy, of Dover, New Hampshire. The Coadjutor Bish- 
op of Cork gave me his permission to go to America on a 
temporary mission, and he wrote me the following letter: 



30 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL-. 

Cork, November 7th, 1886. 
My Dear Father Crowley: 

I am glad you have taken the Mission offered you through 
the kindness of Father O'Callaghan. 

You may expect a hearty welcome from me on your re- 

Yours faithfully, 

f T.A. O'Callaghan, 

Coadjutor Bishop. 
My kindest regards to Father O'Callaghan. 

I also bore the following letters : 

St. Patrick's College, Carlo w, Ireland, June 21, 1886. 
I feel happy in testifying to the excellent character borne 
by Rev. Jeremiah J. Crowley during such time as I have had 
the pleasure of knowing him in this college. In matters of 
discipline he was regular and attentive ; in the discharge of his 
duties diligent ; and in every branch manifested quite an anx- 
iety to give satisfaction. His conduct while here affords ev- 
ery reason to believe that his future will be characterized by the 
same good qualities* 

(Rev.) John Delaney, Dean. 

St. Patrick's College, Carlow, Ireland, July 2, 1886. 
Previous to his ordination to the priesthood last Pente- 
cost the Rev. Jeremiah J. Crowley had spent four and a half 
years in this college. He read rhetoric, moral philosophy, and 
three years theology with credit to himself. His moral con- 
duct was always edifying, and I have every reason to hope 
that he will be a most zealous, useful and pious priest. 

(Very Rev.) Edward W. Burke, D. D. 

President. 

When I reached America I was appointed assistant rector 
of St. Anne's Church, Manchester, New Hampshire, which 
was the mensal parish of the late Bishop Denis M. Bradley. 
I staid there sixteen months, when my time for returning to 
Ireland came in obedience to my promise to the Bishop of 
Cork. 

As to the manner in which I had discharged my priestly 
duties in Manchester, I quote the following letters : 



INTRODUCTORY. 31 

Manchester, N. H., April 2, 1888. 
My Dear Father Crowley : 

In acceding to your request to be permitted to return to 
your own Diocese, I cannot refrain from assuring you of my 
gratitude for your labors in my Diocese during the sixteen 
months that you have labored therein. You have always and 
under all circumstances carried yourself in a manner becom- 

Yours respectfully, 
•f Denis M. Bradley, 

Bishop of Manchester. 

Manchester, N. H., April 3, 1888. 
To Rt. Rev. Dr. O'Callaghan, 

Bishop of Cork. 
Right Rev. and Dear Sir : 

The bearer, Rev. Jeremiah J. Crowley, a priest of your 
Lordship's Diocese, has exercised the sacred ministry in my 
Diocese during the past sixteen months. He returns to his 
home at his own earnest solicitation. 

I beg leave to add that he has given me entire satisfaction 
during the time that he has been subject to my jurisdiction. 

Yours very respectfully, 

f Denis M. Bradley. 

I make the following quotations from the non-Catholic and 
the Catholic press of Manchester to show how I was regarded 
by all classes. Neither directly nor indirectly had I anything 
to do with the writing of the articles. 

The Manchester Daily Union, March 28, 1888. 
A Sad Occasion. 

The Rev. Father Crowley to Leave Manchester for Ire- 
land. 

Rev. Father J. J. Crowley, the able assistant pastor at 
St. Ann's Church for some time, is to leave Manchester for 
Ireland on Wednesday next, and in all probability will sever 
his permanent relationship with this city for all time. On 
Friday evening last he delivered a farewell sermon, taking for 
his text the following words : " Seek first the Kingdom of 
God and His Justice." There was a very large congregation 
in attendance, and after an eloquent discourse upon the above 
text the Reverend Father took occasion to thank the people 



3^ THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

for their kindness, goodness and respect toward him during 
the sixteen months he had spent among them. . . The entire 
congregation sobbed aloud and heard with sadness the fare- 
well words of him they had learned to love and esteem. 

The Manchester Daily Union, April 2, 1888. 

Warm Hearted Father Crowley. 

He Receives Many Evidences of Esteem. 

Overwhelmed With Kindness — Expressions of Regrets. 

Since the announcement was made that Rev. J. J. Crow- 
ley, assistant pastor of St. Ann's Church, intended to dis- 
solve his official relations in this country and return to Ire- 
land to accept a position in the Diocese of Cork, he has been 
overwhelmed with callers who have waited upon him to ex- 
press their regrets because of his intended departure, and to 
wish him the choicest of blessings in all time to come. . . 
Among Protestants also he is highly esteemed, and among 
people of all manner of beliefs and callings there is but one 
sentiment, and that of regret because of his going away. Un- 
numbered kindnesses have been heaped upon him within the 
last few days. . . Father Crowley leaves Manchester on 
Wednesday afternoon next, but will pass several weeks in the 
principal cities of America before sailing for the " Isle of 
Saints." 

The New Hampshire Catholic, March 31, 1888. 

It is safe to say that no priest captured the affections of 
the Catholics of this city so completely, in so short a time, 
as Father Crowley has done. There is nothing small about 
him. . . In the zeal with which he discharged his priestly 
duties he could not be surpassed. He is a model specimen of 
the Soggarth Aroon (dear priest) and quickly and thoroughly 
the people perceived the fact. Utterly devoted to his sacred 
calling he is also a staunch Nationalist, and is heart and soul 
in sympathy with the cause of Home Rule for his beloved na- 
tive land. . . 

The New Hampshire Catholic, April 7, 1888. 

About three o'clock Wednesday afternoon the depot began 
filling up with people, most of whom were not in travelling 
garb, and very many had evidently come from the mills to at- 
tend the train. It was quite apparent that all eyes were 



INTRODUCTORY. 33 

turned on one person, a stalwart young clergyman, who tow- 
ered head and shoulders over the throng. There was 
no mistaking the earnest and kindly features of Father Crow- 
ley, who had his hands full to bid good bye to the sorrowful 
friends who came to see him off . . There were few dry eyes 
in the throng. . . In the brief period of sixteen months he 
has been in this city, Father Crowley has captured and bears 
back with him to the diocese of Cork to which he belongs the 
esteem and affection of our people from the head of the Dio- 
cese down. 

I arrived in Ireland about the middle of June, 1888, and 
September 20 I was appointed assistant pastor at West Schull 
(Goleen), County Cork, Ireland. I served in this place until 
March, 1892. This parish was about twenty miles long and 
seven wide, and it was inhabited principally by tenant farmers. 
During this time I was imprisoned seven months in Her Ma- 
jesty's prison in Cork for the heinous offense of having suc- 
cored Mr. Samuel Townsend Bailey, a Protestant gentleman, 
seventy years of age and stone blind, who had been deprived, 
on a mere legal technicality, of his estate by the clergy of his 
own Church, and turned out upon the roadside without money, 
food or shelter. As my enemies charge that I was once in 
jail because of some grave violation of the law, in the palpable 
hope of discrediting me with the public, I am constrained to 
give the details of this incident, for on it they found their base 
slander. They have circulated the tale at home and abroad 
that I was "such a devil" that the British Government was 
compelled to lock me up to protect the public. 

In the year 1847, which was the famine year in Ireland, 
Mr. Bailey, a Protestant, was in the possession of a comfort- 
able estate, which afforded him a substantial stone residence 
and an adequate income. Most of his tenants died of starva- 
tion during the famine, and he was deprived of his income. 
Mr. Bailey's Protestant Rector was a Rev. Mr. Fisher, whose 
assistant was a Rev. Mr. Hopley. The people were starving 
and dying all around, and Rev. Fisher wrote to Protestant 
societies and individuals in England, telling them that if he 



34 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

had money to buy food for the people he could convert all the 
Catholics. Money poured in upon him. He called upon Mr. 
Bailey, who was his chief parishioner, sympathized with him 
and offered him financial aid, which Mr. Bailey was very glad 
to get Rev. Fisher then went home for the money ; he re- 
turned with it and also a shrewdly drawn assignment of Mr. 
Bailey's property to the church trustees, the assignment to take 
effect after the lives of three individuals and thirty-three years 
(which finally proved to be a term of about forty years), which 
assignment he wanted as a mere formality in case his generous 
friends in England should ever question his handling of the 
funds. Rev. Fisher died before my return to Ireland, and he 
was succeeded by Rev. Hopley. Rev. Hopley wanted to get 
Mr. Bailey's stone residence and its adjoining five acres for 
a woman who was then his maid-servant, and he urged the 
church trustees to commence legal proceedings to evict Mr. 
Bailey. The case was fought during three terms of court. 
The Judge kept putting off the delivery of his decision in the 
hope that the church authorities would see what a harsh enter- 
prise they were engaged in, and relent. He finally pronounced 
judgment, and, on a technicality, was forced to hold against 
Mr. Bailey. 

Mr. Bailey in despair turned to me, having heard of my 
championship of the civil rights of Protestants as well as of 
Catholics in that district. His son came to see me. I said, 
' Before I attempt to do anything I must see your father's 
tenants and learn from them whether he has been a kind land- 
lord." In a few days the tenants came to me in a body, and 
told me that old Mr. Bailey had been a most indulgent land- 
lord. I then said, " It is the duty of Christians of all denomi- 
nations to come to his rescue." I then asked if anyone present 
would give a site for a hut (a little frame cottage) in the 
vicinity of the Bailey homestead. Mr. Thomas Donovan, a 
Protestant farmer, gave a site right across the road from Mr. 
Bailey's stone residence. There was a vacant hut ten miles 
away, and I called for volunteers to transport that building 



INTRODUCTORY. 35 

forthwith and put it on the new site. Within twenty-four 
hours the hut was transferred to the new location, and above 
it I had placed two flags, one green and the other orange. Be- 
fore the erection of the hut a fair rental was tendered on behalf 
of Mr. Bailey for the stone house and five acres, but it was 
refused. 

A few days later a force of bailiffs and police evicted the 
blind old man and his family, and threw them " on the road- 
side." Word was sent to me and I hastened to the seat of 
difficulty. There I found the blind and helpless old man sit- 
ting on the roadside ; I took him by the hand and led him into 
the hut, his aged wife and son following. 

Rev. Mr. Hopley was insanely maddened by the presence 
of the hut and its occupants in such close proximity to the old 
homestead, and to his own home, which was about a quarter 
of a mile distant. The Tory Government trumped up against 
me a charge of intimidation; I was arrested; and, under a re- 
vived statute, passed in the reign of George the Third, I was 
' tried," not before the ordinary and usual tribunal, but be- 
fore two ' Removable " Magistrates — paid government offi- 
cials. My conviction was a foregone conclusion from the be- 
ginning. 

My prosecution was the subject of many editorials. I give 
a few excerpts. 

Eagle and County Cork Advertiser, Ireland, June 28, 1890. 

The Prosecution of Father Crowley. 

When the history of Ireland comes to be written up to date, 
no more extraordinary event will present itself to the writer 
than that which has occurred in West Cork during the past 
few days. If the historian does his work faithfully, both the 
Land League and the National League will occupy prominent 
places in historical records. To the agrarian question of the 
present day much time and thought will be devoted, but in no 
event from the Clanricarde evictions, from the founding of 
New Tipperary, down to the most trivial affair, will be found 
such an episode as that which presented itself at Goleen on 
last Sunday. No less than eight Protestant families changed 



36 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

their religion, and joined the Roman Catholic Church, to show 
and prove their indignation at the conduct of their own pastor, 
the Rev. Mr. Hopley, . . . Out of Bailey's eviction and 
the threat to remove Donovan for an act of kindness have 
arisen the proceedings which terminated on Wednesday in the 
conviction of Father Crowley under the Crimes Act. . . 

The Cork Daily Herald of June 26, 1890. 

Yesterday Mr. Cecil Roche (one of the two presiding 
magistrates) consummated the outrage which he was sent to 
West Cork to perpetrate. At the conclusion of a farcical trial, 
during the course of which it was quite easy to see that the 
Bench meant to convict, a most outrageous sentence was passed 
on Father Crowley, of Goleen. Seven months' imprisonment 
is what is awarded against Father Crowley for taking the side 
of the poor Protestants of Teampeall-na-bo'ct against their 
evictors and persecutors. Father Crowley denounced these 
people. He made public charges against a parson and against 
a policeman which these persons could have got investigated by 
means of a civil action. They did not do so. The fact that 
the paid Castle (Government) magistrates have come down, 
and in violation of the spirit of the law and of all constitutional 
usages have sent Father Crowley to gaol for seven months 
does little to better their position. We have no doubt fchat 
this " trial " of Father Crowley will receive immediate atten- 
tion in Parliament. The sentence is not only abominable and 
vindictive in itself, but it is a deliberate evasion of the law 
which gives every subject the right of appeal from every sen- 
tence of over a month's duration in Ireland, and from all 
sentences whatsoever in England. . . 

His imprisonment is, in every respect, a misfortune for 
his locality. In the poor district of Goleen he has been a 
peacemaker of a model type between landlords and tenants, 
and both classes are equally thankful to him. The fact that he 
interfered in favour of Protestant as well as Catholic proves 
the spirit of broad-mindedness in which he approached his 
work. It was not because the parson sided with the evictors 
of one of his own flock that his mouth was to remain closed, 
and it did not remain closed. For what arose out of his thus 
championing the oppressed he goes to goal. . . 

We simply say that under the circumstances a prosecu- 



INTRODUCTORY. 37 

tion on an absurd charge was a gross misuse of public author- 
ity and a scandal on the administration of justice. 

The Cork Examiner of June 26, 1890. 

The remarkable prosecution at Bantry came to an end 
yesterday, when the sentence demanded by Mr. Ronan, Q. C, 
(Crown Prosecutor) was imposed on the defendant, the Rev. 
Jeremiah J. Crowley, the popular young curate of the parish 
of Goleen. . . 

Seeing the nature of the charge and the constitution of the 
Court, the result can have surprised no one. But it is a 
strange prosecution, arising out of very exceptional circum- 
stances and connected with some very curious occurrences. . . 
A sentence of savage severity is imposed on this young and 
blameless clergyman. That severity will assuredly defeat its 
own purpose. The immense popularity of Father Crowley in 
West Cork was demonstrated in Schull and Bantry in a way 
that must have impressed Mr. Cecil Roche. Even before the 
trial the feelings of the people with regard to the prosecution 
and the conduct of the Rev. Mr. Hopley were exhibited in a 
perfectly startling and unprecedented fashion. Up to eight 
Protestant families left the Rev. Mr. Hopley's congregation 
and joined the Catholic Church. 

The incident proves, at all events, that even among the 
Protestants of his district the Rev. Mr. Hopley has lost his 
influence through his interference with tenants like Bailey and 
Donovan (both Protestants) and that the young priest has 
won the affections of Protestants and Catholics alike by his 
generous and practical sympathy with the poor and the op- 
pressed. Removables Welch and Roche are, perhaps, of opin- 
ion that Father Crowley's influence in his district will not sur- 
vive a term of imprisonment, and that the National League 
must cease to exist west of Bantry. On the contrary, Father 
Crowley's sufferings in their cause will but render him ten 
times dearer to the hearts of the people and make ten times 
stronger their resolve to overthrow a system under which the 
imprisonment of a young and kindly clergyman becomes a 
necessity of State. 

West Cork is the western half of County Cork, and is 
about sixty miles long by thirty wide. 



38 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

The details of my journey to gaol were given in extended 
press notices at that time. I quote briefly from one of them: 

Eagle and County Cork Advertiser, June 28, 1890. 
The Journey to Cork. 

At half past six o'clock Father Crowley was driven from 
the police barrack in a covered car to the railway station, ac- 
companied by a strong escort, and followed by a large cheer- 
ing crowd. Cordons of police were stationed at all approaches 
to the station, and allowed to pass only tho^e who were travel- 
ing by train. A large crowd, however, by climbing over the 
walls and ditches, succeeded in reaching the road outside the 
station, but their progress to the platform was barred by a 
strong force of police drawn across the entrance. At the sta- 
tion, District-Inspector Smyth was in charge of a body of po- 
lice and a great portion of the crowd was prevented from enter- 
ing the railway premises, but they soon fringed the line and 
cheered the Rev. prisoner loudly. Father Crowley's brother 
clergymen were allowed on the platform, and he had many a 
hearty handshake before the train started. District-Inspector 
Stewart, Kinsale, was in charge of Father Crowley, who was 
accommodated in a first-class compartment, and the body- 
guard consisted of four policemen. In a third-class carriage 
a dozen policemen traveled, while the fifty soldiers of the 
Welch Regiment, who had been on duty, also returned to Cork 
by the train. As the train moved off the Rev. gentleman was 
followed by the enthusiastic cheers of those gathered on the 
platform, and which were vigorously echoed by those outside. 
At the stations en route to Cork — Drimoleague, Dunmanway, 
Ballineen, Enniskean, etc., crowds cheered Father Crowley en- 
thusiastically, and bonfires were lighting as the train steamed 
by. 

Police Violence at Bandon. 

In Bandon the whole populace appeared to have turned 
out, headed by the town band, but at the gates of the station 
they were met by a body of police under the command of Mr. 
Gardiner, R. M., who had traveled from Cork by the evening 
train. He at once ordered the police to charge the people, 
and the batonmen obeyed the order with alacrity. The bands- 
men were beaten and the instruments seized. On the plat- 
form priests, Town Commissioners, shareholders of the line, 



INTRODUCTORY. 39 

railway porters and all were hustled and shoved about, and 
the police did all they could to provoke a row. When the 
train arrived Mr. Gardiner's excitement was intense, and he 
rushed from carriage to carriage shouting out for military and 
police as if the train was about to be seized and carried off the 
rails. At last he rushed to the compartment in which Father 
Crowley was, and seeing District-Inspector Stewart, he ordered 
that officer to get a number of his armed policemen out of the 
train, and clear the people off the platform if the cheering was 
not stopped. The inspector carried out the magistrate's order, 
and the moment the cheering was renewed the police charged 
the crowd, and a number of people were punched with the butts 
of rifles. Fathers Magner, O'Shea and Coghlan were present, 
together with Mr. C. Crowley and several Town Commission- 
ers. These gentlemen protested to the stationmaster against 
the manner in which the Bandon people had been treated on 
the railway premises, but all Mr. Rattray could say was that 
he was" powerless in the matter. After a short delay the train 
started for the city of Cork, Mr. Gardiner traveling by it in 
order to take charge of the police force on duty at the Cork 
terminus. 

Scenes in Cork. 

The news of the sentence on Father Crowley was pretty 
well known in the city of Cork about nine o'clock, and a good- 
ly number had assembled outside the railway terminus when 
the Bantry train reached Cork, shortly after half-past nine. 
There were but few persons on the platform, as the police ap- 
peared to have superseded the railway officials in charge of 
the station. A body of police kept the gates, and exercised an 
arbitrary power over the rights of the citizens generally. The 
Mayor was admitted and some town councillors got through 
in a rather undignified manner, but dogged pertinacity alone 
procured admittance for some other gentlemen, while the vast 
portion of the crowd was crushed outside. A considerable 
number of plain clothes men (detectives) mingled with the 
crowd, while a few of them took up positions on the station 
platform. 

Just as the train reached the platform about twenty police- 
men, under District-Inspector Bourchier, drew up opposite the 
carriage in which Father Crowley was in custody, while the 
moment the train stopped the military, who occupied the car- 
riage next the engine, quickly sprang out and formed on the 



40 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

left of the policemen. The large body of policemen who had 
come in on the train then came forward on the far end of the 
platform, completely barring the few persons present from ap- 
proaching any portion of the train. A minute after Father 
Crowley stepped from the train, and was hurried by his escort 
to the police side-car. A number of policemen treading on 
one another's heels, pressed after the Rev. gentleman, and 
surrounded the car while he was taking a seat beside District- 
Inspector Stewart. The gates being thrown open the police 
car, followed by the brake, which was loaded with fully armed 
policemen, drove out into the thick of the crowd amidst loud 
cheers for the Rev. prisoner. The general body of police im- 
mediately followed and kept up with the cars for some little 
distance. 

Amongst the gentlemen who were present in the railway 
station when Father Crowley arrived were the Mayor; Rev. 
P. O'Neill, S. S. Peter and Paul's ; Rev. J. M'Donnell, S. S. 
Peter and Paul's ; Rev. Father Murray, C. C. ; Messrs. W. 
Kelleher, T. C. ; J. C. Forde, Sec. National League ; Aid. J. 
O'Brien; and E. Murphy, sessional chairman, Cork, Young 
Ireland Society. 

The route to the gaol was by the South Mall, Grand Pa- 
rade, Great George's Street and the Western Road, and all 
along the way the sidewalks were covered with people, who 
cheered loudly and long for the Rev. prisoner. The usual 
police cordon was drawn up at the gaol Cross, but it was rather 
surprising to find a crowd of people at the very gaol door as 
the prisoner drove up. The Mayor accompanied Father Crow- 
ley into the prison and saw him lodged in the reception ward. 

I had for my jail diet the first three days bread and water ; 
thereafter I had the usual prison fare. For the first month 
my bed was a plank. 

Within a few days after my incarceration, letters, tele- 
grams and cablegrams poured in upon Rev. Mr. Hopley's bish- 
op, asking him if he had been a party to this injustice. The 
bishop sent at once three clergymen to tender to Mr. Bailey 
his old residence and the five acres, with the privilege of oc- 
cupancy rent free during the rest of his life. Mr, Bailey re- 
plied, " No, gentlemen, Father Crowley is in prison, suffering 
for me. You must get Father Crowley out of prison before 



INTRODUCTORY. 41 

I could think of going back to my old home." I heard of this 
offer, and succeeded in communicating with Mr. Bailey and in- 
sisted upon his going back, which he most reluctantly did. 

Great pressure was brought to bear upon me by the Tory 
Government to sign a peace bond, and thus to put an end to 
my captivity at the end of the first month, Mr. Gladstone, the 
Liberal Party and the Irish Party having become interested 
in my case, which was debated in the British Parliament. I 
refused absolutely to sign any such bond, as its signing I con- 
sidered would be tantamount to an admission of guilt, and my 
refusal had the unanimous approval of the Catholic bishop 
and clergy of the Diocese of Cork. The result was that I 
remained in jail six months lcnger. 

Upon my release, on my way heme and at home I was 
greeted by vast throngs of people who testified in every pos- 
sible way the esteem in which they held me ; but the one wel- 
come which touched me most was that given me by Mr. Bailey 
— the old and blind Protestant gentleman threw his arms 
around my neck and kissed me. 

Some press excerpts seem apropos and I give them : 

Eagle and County Cork Advertiser, January 31, 1891. 
Father Crowley Released on Saturday. 

Father Crowley, the gallant and patriotic curate of Go- 
leen, was released from Cork prison at 7 : 30 o'clock on Satur- 
day morning, after undergoing seven months' imprisonment 
for an " offense " under the Coercion Act. The circumstances 
under which Father Crowley was imprisoned are already well 
known to our readers. We are glad to say that the true-heart- 
ed Soggarth (priest) is in excellent health and spirits, and has 
borne his imprisonment with a cheerful courage worthy of the 
cause for which he has suffered. Father Crowley comes out 
of the prison with the happy consciousness of not only having 
done his duty as a faithful priest and a robust politician, but 
of having won the battle for which he fought. 

The law might call his offense " intimidation." But at 
least his intimidation was a success. The man whose cause 
Father Crowley advocated — the cause of an evicted Protestant 



42 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

against his own parson — has gained. When Father Crow- 
ley was a short time in gaol, he was re-instated, and notwith- 
standing this the authorities still detained the Rev. gentleman 
in prison. 

On Wednesday Father Crowley proceeded from Cork to 
Bantry. He left Cork for the purpose of visiting his friends 
and former parishioners in West Cork, and at the different sta- 
tions along the route he received hearty ovations. Rev. W. 
Murphy, P. P., Kilbrittain, traveled with him as far as En- 
niskeane. At Waterfall a- large crowd gathered, by whom 
hearty cheers were raised. At Bandon there was a very large 
number of people with the brass band of the town, including 
the Very Rev. Dean M'Swiney, P. P., V. G. ; Rev. Mr. Mag- 
ner, C. C. ; Rev. Mr. Russell, C. C. ; Rev. Mr. Coghlan, C. C. ; 
Rev. Mr. M'Donnell, C. C, Kilbrittain. 

When the train steamed in Dean M'Swiney was the first 
to shake hands with Father Crowley and welcome him back 
out of the hands of the Balfours and the Roches, and when 
the train was leaving the station he again called for cheers for 
Father Crowley, which were heartily responded to. 

At Enniskeane Rev. Mr. G'Sullivan, C. C. and a large 
crowd were gathered, and at Dunmanway there was another 
large concourse assembled. 

At Drimoleague Rev. J. Murphy, P. P. ; Dr. Crowley, 
Messrs. W. Fitzgerald, J. Connolly, A. M'Carthy, P. L. G., 
and a number of others were present. 

At Bantry Father Crowley was met by Rev. J. O'Leary, 
C. C. ; Rev. J. O'Hea, C. C. ; Rev. J. Kearney, C. C. ; Mr. J. 
Gilhooly, M. P.; Mr. P. T. Carroll (solicitor), and a large 
deputation of the townspeople. As the train steamed in hearty 
cheers were raised for the Rev. " ex-criminal," and when he 
stepped out on the platform a rush was made to seize his hand 
and welcome him to liberty once more. The Rev. gentleman 
then proceeded to the residence of the Very Rev. Canon Shink- 
win, P. P. 

In the evening a meeting was held in the town hall in 
his honor. The building was filled to overflowing. . . . 
The Rev. J. O'Leary, C. C, presided. 

The Rev. Chairman briefly introduced Father Crowley, 
and referred to his -sufferings in prison, and the fortitude and 
dignity with which he had borne them. He said the glaring 
injustice of which Father Crowley was the victim, and the 



INTRODUCTORY. 43 

iniquitous punishment to which he had been subjected, had 
only more endeared him to the hearts of the people of West 
Cork, and it was with a hearty caed mille failthe they wel- 
comed him amongst them once more (cheers). 

Addresses were presented from the Bantry Branch of the 
National League, and the Bantry G. A. A. . . 

From Bantry Father Crowley proceeded to Skibbereen. 
The arrival at Skibbereen was marked by an enthusiastic ova- 
tion from a large crowd assembled at the terminus. Amongst 
those present were Rev. Fathers O'Brien and Cunningham ; 
Dr. Kearney; Dr. O'Driscoll ; Messrs. Florence M'Carthy ; Cor- 
nelius M'Carthy, Town Clerk ; Timothy Sheehy, T. C. ; John 
O'Shea ; Charles O'Shea ; P. Sheehy, solicitor ; Edward Roy- 
craft, Chairman Schull Guardians ; etc. 

At Ballydehob a great crowd was assembled, and a most 
enthusiastic cheer was raised when the train pulled up at the 
station, the fife and drum band of the village playing a series 
of National airs. 

It may be observed here that on the occasion of Father 
Crowley's release on Saturday last the village was brilliantly 
illuminated, tar-barrels being lit in the streets and the windows 
of all the houses being illuminated. The band paraded the 
streets, playing National airs, and followed by a large crowd. 
On Thursday the band joined the train at Ballydehob and 
traveled with us all the way to Goleen. A tremendous cheer 
was raised as the train steamed out ; the band playing the 
while. With the band the following representatives from Bal- 
lydehob accompanied Father Crowley as far as Schull — Rev. 
D. Corcoran ; Messrs. T. McSwiney, Hon. Sec. I. N. L. ; D. 
Gallagher ; J. Coughlan, M. Cotter, R. Hodnett. 

On the arrival of the train at Schull a scene of the 
most extraordinary enthusiasm was witnessed. Before the 
station was reached the road for a long distance was crowded 
with men and women, the men waving their hats, and many 
men and women bearing aloft evergreens. On the platform 
the throng was dense, and immediately that the train stopped 
a rush was made for the carriage in which Father Crowley 
traveled, joy beaming on every face, and the people almost walk- 
ing on each other in their eagerness to shake the hand of Father 
Crowley. Schull itself presented a gay appearance. All the 
way from the station the road and fences were lined with peo- 
ple, of whom there were some thousands, not alone from 



44 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Schull, but from all the surrounding country, and even from 
Goleen. There were triumphal arches across the streets, bear- 
ing suitable mottoes, flags waved from many windows, and 
as the procession wended its way through the village to the 
Rev. Father O'Connor's, house the greatest enthusiasm was 
evinced. Schull, on the occasion, did honor to the patriotic 
priest in a splendid manner. On the day of his release they 
showed their joy in a befitting- way with tar-barrels and illu- 
minations, while the country all around was blazing with bon- 
fires. . . 

Father O'Connor addressed the meeting, and said that 
he need not say how happy they all were at seeing .Father 
Crowley amongst them, and their pleasure was the greater 
at seeing him in such splendid form, notwithstanding all 
that he had endured — endured so unjustly and cruelly, in 
" Balfour's Hotel " in Cork during the past seven months. He 
need not relate to them the reasons why he was imprisoned. 
He was put into jail for trying to promote justice between 
man and man and for championing the cause of a poor blind 
old gentleman, who was a Protestant. They were all proud 
of Father Crowley's action in defending one who then dif- 
fered from him in creed (cheers). Father Crowley had al- 
ways endeavored to see justice between landlord and tenant, 
and it was for these reasons that he was immured in Cork 
Gaol (groans and a voice, " Thank God he is not the worse 
for it"). They were all delighted to know that he was as 
determined to work in the national cause in the future as he 
had shown himself to be in the past (cheers) ; and he hoped 
that that future would be a long and a happy one (cheers). 

Father O'Connor, then read the following address: — 

" To the Rev. J. J. Crowley, R. C. C. 

" Dear Father Crowley, — On behalf of the Schull and Bal- 
lydehob branch of the Irish National League, we beg to ten- 
der you a hearty welcome from " Balfour's Hotel." You may 
feel sure we highly appreciate your noble efforts and suffer- 
ings on behalf of the poor and oppressed people of West 
Schull. We feel the injustice of the terrible sentence — seven 
months — inflicted upon you for no earthly reason but that you 
championed the cause of a poor blind old gentleman against 
landlord rapacity, and we feel the greater pride in your action 
because that he differed from you in religion. We congratu- 
late you upon the splendid state of your health after your 



INTRODUCTORY. 45 

term of imprisonment, and we hope you will be long spared 
to work in the future as you have so nobly done in the past 
in the grand old cause of fatherland." 

Father Crowley, who got a splendid ovation, addressed 
the people and said that he could hardly express in words 
his grateful thanks for the enthusiastic welcome accorded 
him, and for the genuinely hearty manner in which they had 
received him. It was almost unnecessary for him to remind 
them of the history of the struggle which had just come to an 
end. . . 

At the conclusion of the addresses the word was given 

" TO GOLEEN " 

and a long procession was formed. First came Father Crow- 
ley, accompanied by Father Corcoran and Father O'Connell. 
Then came a body of pedestrians, including many women ; 
then came the Ballydehob band, followed by a long line of 
spring carts, equestrians, and common carts, the procession 
reaching nearly two miles in length. Along the line of march 
the people congregated in groups near the houses, bonfires 
blazed along the hill-sides, and evergreens were tied to long 
poles, fixed in the ground. At intervals in the procession flags 
were borne aloft, and at every now and then enthusiastic cheers 
were raised by the crowd of pedestrians that formed Father 
Crowley's guard of honor. The evening was beautifully fine, 
and as the procession wended its way along with banners fly- 
ing, and the horses decorated with green, the effect was pic- 
turesque in the extreme. When we arrived at 

TOORMORE 

the band struck up a tune, and at the " Poor Man's Church " 
some of the villagers met us. The rocky elevations around 
the village were occupied by cheering groups. Bonfires blazed, 
horns were " tooted," and the enthusiasm of the processionists 
reached a high pitch when a banner was observed waving from 
Mr. Bailey's window. Outside Bailey's house a great crowd 
was collected, the women and children waving green branches, 
and the men cheering enthusiastically. A halt was called here, 
and Father Crowley paid a visit to Mr. Bailey, who wept for 
joy when he clasped Father Crowley's hand. Poor Mr. Bai- 
ley is not very well just now, though he is able to be about. 
All the cabins were decorated with ivy and laurel, and the vil- 
lagers gathered around Father Crowley as he emerged from 



46 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Mr. Bailey's, some saying that but for him they would be far 
from Toormore now, and all expressing their joy at his re- 
turn, and their sorrow at his forthcoming departure, some of 
them saying that they'd never let him be sent away from them. 
Leaving Toormore, the crowd of pedestrians was very con- 
siderably augmented, and as the shades of evening were falling, 

GOLEEN 

was reached, the hillsides as we approached our destination 
being ablaze with bonfires in all directions. Goleen itself was 
brilliantly illuminated, every house in the village being a blaze 
of light. Before entering the village the crowd struck up 
" God Save Ireland," and the chapel bell boomed forth its 
deep notes as Father Crowley reached his old home. On the 
rocky elevations above the village tar-barrels blazed, and were 
surrounded by cheering crowds. As Father Crowley made 
his way on to one of the rocks, which served as a sort of plat- 
form, the enthusiasm of the multitude reached an extraor- 
dinary pitch. He was accompanied by Fathers O'Driscoll, 
Corcoran, and O'Connell ; Messrs. Florence M'Carthy, R. 
Roberts, T. Ward, S. Bailey, John Roycroft, James Roycroft, 
and all the principal men of the village and the surrounding 
locality. The whole population of the district for miles around 
was present on the occasion. The Rev. Father O'Driscoll, C. 
C, was chosen to preside, and, in opening the proceedings, 
said that they were assembled on a historic occasion to give 
a welcome home to Father Crowley after his absence of seven 
months in jail (cheers). The people showed their love of 
Father Crowley unmistakably that day. From Mizen Head 
to Dunbeacon the people had shown by the numbers of them 
who went to Schull to welcome him what popularity he had 
earned amongst them by his labours on their behalf. Father 
Crowley had every man and woman and child to welcome him 
back to their midst, while if Removables Welch and Roche, 
who sent him to jail, came there they would have nobody to 
greet them but the police (groans). He concluded by asking 
Mr. Florence M'Carthy to read the address to Father Crowley 
on his release. 

Mr. McCarthy read the following address : 

" Address to the Rev. J. J. Crowley, C. C. (Catholic Curate) 
from the parishioners of Goleen, on his return after seven 
months' imprisonment. 



INTRODUCTORY. 47 

Dear Father Crowley, — It is with feelings of sincere 
pleasure that we welcome you back safely to liberty after en- 
joying for seven months the care and attention of our paternal 
Government in one of its bastiles. We are delighted to find 
that your long imprisonment has neither injured your health 
nor subdued your spirits. We cannot refrain from referring 
with pride to your imprisonment being the result of your de- 
nouncing the harsh and unfeeling treatment dealt out by the 
Trustees of his own Church to an old Protestant gentleman. 
Your hatred of oppression urged you to expose the cruelties 
and hardships of evicting and leaving to die near the ditch 
this old man of seventy winters, with his wife and family. 
Your kind thoughtfulness, however, provided them with a 
home, and it must have been a pleasure to you to-day, as the 
knowledge must have been for months past in your lonely cell, 
to find Mr. Bailey and his family restored long since to their 
old home. You were beloved by us before ; but the hall-mark 
of the prison endears you to us a thousandfold. The Govern- 
ment through motives of petty vindictiveness, detained you 
for months in prison after the wrongs you denounced had 
been rectified; and while you, a Catholic priest, have not hes- 
itated to come to the aid of your oppressed Protestant neigh- 
bors, and cheerfully go to prison for their sakes, the Govern- 
ment and its supporters are not ashamed to urge for political 
purposes the knowingly false cry of ' Catholic intolerance ' 
and oppression of the Protestants as a reason for withhold- 
ing Home Rule from Ireland. Thank God, Catholic Ireland 
can proudly refer to her present and past history to refute this 
libel. A natural hatred of wrong, an inherent sense of jus- 
tice have been intensified by your sojourn in (America) the 
land of liberty. The hardships they were obliged to endure, 
and the petty tyrannies and wrongs the poor people of the 
parish were subjected to aroused your indignation; and once 
you were convinced of the necessity for action you never hes- 
itated to espouse the cause of the oppressed, and were fear- 
less of the consequences. Your prompt and decisive action 
kept many in their homes ; but while checking the aggressive- 
v ness of unfeeling landlordism, you would not tolerate the with- 
holding or non-payment of fair rents, and have in many in- 
stances largely increased the landlords' rent collections. Re- 
gardless of yourself, you were at any time of the day or night, 
when duty called, by the bedside of the .suffering, bringing 



48 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

tender-hearted sympathy to the couch of pain, and succor to 
the poor and lowly. In our selfishness we hoped you would 
be left longer with us to enjoy the little improvements we 
recently made in your home in anticipation of your return 
and stay with us. If this is not to be, we can only assure you 
that your memory will always be treasured by a grateful peo- 
ple, who will look forward to your visiting them occasionally, 
when you may calculate on receiving at all times, as you do 
now, a cead milk failthe." 

Father Crowley, on coming forward to address the peo- 
ple, received a magnificent reception. He said that he was 
unable to express in words how happy he felt at being back 
again in Goleen, and how glad he was to find them all in such 
spirits. He was happy in being able to tell them that he was 
in good health and spirits, too (cheers). He was very thank- 
ful to his dear people for the enthusiastic manner in which 
they received him, and for the address presented to him on 
behalf of the people of Goleen. . . 

An Extraordinary Scene. 

As Father Crowley was making his way from the place of 
meeting to his own house, a most extraordinary scene was 
witnessed. The men and women flocked about him, and wept 
as if their hearts were breaking at the thought of his departure. 
It was a most pathetic scene, and as the loud sobs of many 
hundreds of sorrowing hearts were echoed back from the sur- 
rounding rocks, the effect was at once weird and wonderful. 
Such devotion as was here displayed is a thing that but few 
priests have ever experienced. The manifestations of sincere 
love exhibited were most impressive. The people rushed to 
kiss Father Crowley's hand, and it was only after a long strug- 
gle that he was able to tear himself away from amidst a 
weeping throng of admirers, many of whom loudly declared 
that they would never let him be removed from amongst them. 

The foregoing suggestion of my removal from Goleen was 
founded upon the fact that my bishop was seeking to promote 
me. He yielded to the wishes of the people of Goleen, as will 
be seen by the following letter : 



INTRODUCTORY. 49 

Cork, Feb'y 8th, '91. 
Dear Father Crowley : 

I have yielded to the wishes of the good people of Goleen, 
and I have determined to leave you with them for some time 
longer. There is much to be done in the parish, and the dis- 
tress of the poor people will give you many opportunities of 
exercising your zeal. I remain 

Yours faithfully, 

f T. ^. O'Callaghan. 

I remained in the parish of West Schull (Goleen) fifteen 
months longer; then I was promoted to the parish of New- 
cestown, near Bandon, where I staid four years. 

When I returned to Ireland I determined to go back to 
America at some future time. I asked permission of my 
bishop in 1895 to return. He begged me to withdraw my re- 
quest, and would not yield until my importunity drew from 
him the following reluctant consent: 

Cork, June 18, 1896. 
The Rev. Jeremiah J. Crowley, of the Diocese of Cork, has 
my permission to seek a mission in the United States, and I 
have given it to him reluctantly at his own earnest request 
as I sincerely regret his departure. He is a good, hard-work- 
ing priest, zealous and devoted to his duties. During the 
eight years he has been in the diocese I have had no fault 
whatsoever to find with him. He has already labored on the 
American Mission and is now anxious to return. 

j" T. A. O'Callaghan, Bishop of Cork. 

I also received the following letters : 

Bantry, County Cork, July 13, 1896-. 
As the Rev. J. J. Crowley, who for some years officiated 
in the Deanery over which I preside and is now of his own 
accord severing his connection with this Diocese, has asked 
me to say what I think about him, I feel much pleasure in com- 
plying with his request. He was always faithful in the dis- 
charge of the duties that devolved upon him and thoroughly 
devoted to the work of his sacred calling. His ministry was 
highly efficient and fruitful, and so appreciated was it by the 
people amongst whom he labored that, when he was taken 
from them, they manifested the greatest possible regret. His 



50 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

relations with priests and people were of the kindliest char- 
acter. All who know him wish him a bright and happy future, 
and indeed none more sincerely than mvself. 

M. Canon Shinkwin, P. P. V. F. 

Bandon, County Cork, June 15, 1896. 
Rev. Jeremiah J. Crowley, who has ministered in this 
Deanery for four years, is a very worthy priest. He is hard- 
working and energetic, is esteemed by all who know him, 
and it gives me great pleasure to be able to state that he leaves 
us without the least stain on his character. 

Joseph Canon Shinkwin, P. P. V. F. 

From the Cardinal Primate of all Ireland I received the 

following : 

Ara Coeli, Armagh, July 13, 1896. 
From all I could learn regarding Rev. Father Crowley 
I believe him to be a good, regular, hard-working priest. I 
am sure Father Crowley will labor with zeal and success in 
any mission entrusted to him. | Michael Cardinal Logue. 

From Bishop O'Donnell of Raphoe, Donegal, I received 
the following: 

Letterkenny, County Donegal, June 25, 1896. 
Having met Rev. Jeremiah J. Crowley of Cork more than 
once and heard a great deal about him from others, I -have 
much pleasure in stating that he bears the name of a zealous 
and efficient priest, and it is my expectation that he will prove 
a very useful worker in whatever mission in America his lot 

f Patrick O' Donnell, Bishop of Raphoe. 

I also received the following letters : 

Maynooth College, County Kildare, July 20, 1896. 
I am happy to testify from personal knowledge and 
from reliable information that Father Crowley is an excellent 
priest with a stainless record. Intellectually, socially, and 
physically he is everything that could be desired. He am- 
bitions a wider field for the use of the gifts God has endowed 
him with; and I confidently pray that his zeal and prudence 
may be as conspicuous in the future as in the past. 

Edward Maguire, D. D. (Professor). 



INTRODUCTORY. 51 

St. Finnbarr's Seminary, Cork, Aug. 15, '96. 
Most Rev. M. Corrigan, D. D., 
Archbishop of New York. 
My Dear Lord : 

Father Crowley asks me for a line of introduction to 
Your Grace. He is seeking for a mission in America with 
permission of his bishop, from whom he has got an excellent 
letter. To that I would wish to add the very strong personal 
recommendation of my brother (Very Rev. John B. O'Mahon- 
ey, D. D.), President of our Diocesan Seminary, and who 
knows Father Crowley particularly well, as he was one of his 
earliest pupils. 

I take this opportunity of thanking your Grace for all 
your kindness on the occasion of my last visit to New 
York, every way one of the pleasantest of my many pleasant 
souvenirs of America. I write this from my brother's place, 
where I am staying for a few days on my way to All Hallows 
(College). 

Most Respectfully Yours in Christ, 

T. J. O'Mahoney, D. D. 
(Professor of All Hallows College, Dublin). 

I arrived in New York in August, 1896. After a few 
days I paid a visit to my friends in Manchester, New Hamp- 
shire, and received the following letter to the Vicar General 
of the Archdiocese of New York: 

Manchester, N. H., August 30, 1896. 
My Dear Monsignor Mooney : 

This will introduce to you Rev. Jeremiah J. Crowley 
of the Diocese of Cork. He exercised the sacred ministry in 
this Diocese for sixteen months. He was an assistant here 
in the city during his stay in this Diocese. He is an excellent 
priest, sober, zealous and of great faith. 

Yours sincerely in Christ, 
"I" Denis M. Bradley, Bishop of Manchester. 

I was received most cordially by Archbishop Corrigan 
and other Church dignitaries at New York, but there being 
no vacancy I came to Chicago. 

I called upon Archbishop Feehan in Chicago, accom- 
panied by a prominent ecclesiastic. I was appointed an 



52 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

assistant pastor at the Church of the Nativity of our Lord, 
37th St. and Union Ave., Chicago. I was there nearly three 
years. On December 20, 1899, I was promoted by Archbishop 
Feehan to the Oregon, Illinois, parish and the outlying mis- 
sions thereof, receiving from His Grace the following letter: 

Chicago, 'December 20, 1899. 
I hereby appoint Rev. J. J. Crowley pastor of St. Mary's 
Church, Oregon, 111., and also of the missions attached to that 
place. 

I recommend him to the kindness and confidence of 
the Catholic people. 

j" P. A. Feehan, Archbishop of Chicago. 

I remained in Oregon until August 3, 1901, when I was 
ousted by an injunction issued by the civil court on the prayer 
of a petition alleged to have been filed by the direction of the 
late Archbishop Feehan of the Archdiocese of Chicago. 

And now I come to the famous Chicago controversy 
which arose in the summer of 1900 over the appointment of 
an Auxiliary Bishop to the late Archbishop Feehan. It was 
commenced by twenty-five priests of most excellent stand- 
ing, and it is still pending. 

During the Oregon, Illinois, litigation, commenced against 
me as stated in the name of Archbishop Feehan of the Arch- 
diocese of Chicago, I had prepared a printed brief which set 
forth the pleadings, affidavits, etc., in that litigation, and I 
mailed copies of this publication to various Church dignitaries. 
To the fly-leaf I attached a little slip, a facsimile of which is 

as follows : 

With the Compliments of 

A full and authentic history of the sad con- 
dition of the Catholic Church in the Archdio- 
cese of Chicago, is now being prepared and will 
be given to the public in the near future. 



INTRODUCTORY. 53 

A consequence of the foregoing slip was the sending to 
me of the following unjust and invalid document, Cardinal 
Martinelli, (the Papal Delegate to the Church in the United 
States), having been persuaded to adopt this course in the 
hope that it would save himself and my opponents from ex- 
posure by frightening me into a cowardly submission : 

[translation.] 

Apostolic Delegation, 
United States of America. 

No. 1393. Washington, D. C. 

This No. should be Prefixed to the Answer. 

Inasmuch as the Sacred Congregation for propagating 
the Faith has learned that certain priests of the Archdiocese 
of Chicago have taken grave offense at the election of the 
Rev. P. J. Muldoon to the Episcopate, and have with all their 
vigor, pertinaciously and wrongfully protested against his 
consecration, [therefore, it, the Sacred Congregation], by let- 
ters No. 45,708, dated Rome, August 21, 1901, has charged 
this Apostolic Delegation with the duty of watching closely 
lest the matter should grow to too great a scandal, and at the 
same time of canonically admonishing, and, as far as may be 
necessary, visiting with ecclesiastical censure, whomsoever it 
[said Delegation] might happen to find guilty. 

Now, however, since we have with safety learned that the 
Rev. Jeremiah Crowley, a priest of the said Archdiocese, made 
a very bitter contest against the aforesaid election and conse- 
cration, and does not even now desist therefrom, since, indeed, 
we have before us 

1. A bill of complaint by him presented to the civil court, 

2. A defense which his advocate undertook to prepare, 

3. A promise made by him in writing concerning the early 
publication of a work wherein he will relate the sad state of 
the Archdiocese existing in his mind, 

We require the said Rev. Jeremiah Crowley, in the Lord, 
for his own good and for the honor of the Church, to desist 
from his pertinacity, and at the same time we peremptorily, 
once instead of thrice, warn him to give certain signs of 
repentance and reparation. 

But if he shall refuse and if, within the space of ten days, 
to be computed from the day of his receiving notice of this 
Admonition, he shall not repair the scandal, 



54 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

1. By desisting from the prosecution of the suit in the 
civil tribunal, 

2. By altogether prohibiting the printing of the prom- 
ised book, or, if it shall have already been printed, by not pub- 
lishing the same, 

3. By making public reparation for the public scandal, 

4. And by submitting himself to the authority of the 
Archbishop, 

We declare him ipso facto excommunicated, and we re- 
serve to this Apostolic Delegation the power to annul (or to 
absolve from) this excommunication. 

Moreover, we commit to the Court of the Archbishop of 
Chicago the execution of this decree, and we, therefore, charge 
it with the duty of transmitting these presents to the afore- 
said Rev. Jeremiah Crowley, all legal requirements being ob- 
served. But if the said Rev. Jeremiah Crowley is absent 
or cannot be found, then, the edict being posted up in the 
churches or in other public place, after the space of ten days, 
as above mentioned, he still not desisting from pertinacity, we 
ordain that this decree shall in like manner take effect. 

Given at Washington, 

From the palace of the Apostolic Delegation, Octo- 

Sebastian Card. Martinelli, 
Apostolic Pro-Delegate. 

In due course the following unjust and invalid document 
was issued in the name of Archbishop Feehan of the Arch- 
diocese of Chicago : 

Chicago, 111., Oct. 26, 1901. 

Whereas, the Rev. Jeremiah J. Crowley, a priest exer- 
cising faculties in the Archdiocese of Chicago, has grievously 
violated the laws and discipline of the Roman Catholic Church 
and of the Archdiocese of Chicago, and as he persists con- 
tumaciously in his unlawful conduct, therefore, after due 
warning from the Apostolic Delegation of the United States, 
as shown by the above document, which was delivered to the 
Rev. Jeremiah J. Crowley in person on Wednesday, the 16th 
day of October, 1901, and the said Rev. Jeremiah J. Crow- 
ley having failed to comply with the conditions laid down by 
the Apostolic Delegation within the period of time allotted 
to him in the said decree, we hereby declare publicly and 
solemnly that the Rev. Jeremiah J. Crowley is excommunicated. 



INTRODUCTORY. 55 

from the Roman Catholic Church and all participation therein, 
according to the decree of His Eminence, Sebastian Cardinal 
Martinelli, Pro-Delegate Apostolic. 

The effects of this most grave censure of the Church are: 

1. He is cut off from the communion and society of the 
faithful. 

2. The faithful are forbidden, under severe penalty, to 
hold communion with him or assist him in his unlawful con- 
duct. 

3. He cannot receive or administer any of the sacraments 
of the Church. Should he attempt to give absolution in the 
tribunal of penance, said absolution is invalid and sacrilegious. 

4. He cannot be present or assist at any of the public ex- 
ercises or offices of religion in the Roman Catholic Church, 
nor can he be present at mass, vespers or any other public ser- 
vice in the Roman Catholic Church. 

5. He cannot receive or fill any office within the gift of 
the Roman Catholic Church. 

6. Should he die while under this excommunication he 
will be deprived of Christian burial. 

All the pastors of this Archdiocese are hereby commanded, 
sub pasna suspensionis, to attach the above decree and this let- 
ter on the wall of the sacristies of their churches for thirty days, 
in such a manner that it may easily be seen and read by all. 

This order goes into effect immediately upon receipt 
thereof. 

Given at Chicago, on this 26th day of October, 1901. 

j" Patrick A. Feehan, Archbishop of Chicago. 

By order of the most Reverend Archbishop, 

F. J. Barry, Chancellor. 

This unjust and invalid ban of excommunication was re- 
moved within two months by Bishop Scannell of Omaha, 
Nebraska, U. S. A., he acting as the representative of the 
Papal Delegate, Cardinal Martinelli. / made no apology to 
the priests against whom charges had been made, and I made 
no promise to desist from issuing the publication the announce- 
ment of which had been the moving cause of my unjust and 
invalid excommunication. 

The following is a translation of the Celebret given to me 



56 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

by Bishop Scannell upon the removal of the ban of excommuni- 
cation : 

RICHARD 
By divine mercy and favor of the Apostolic See Bishop 

of Omaha. 

To the Rev. J. J. Crowley : 

By these presents we testify that you for honorable rea- 
sons known to us obtained leave of absence for six months, 
and we make known to all with whom you may come in con- 
tact that you are of good moral character, and that as far 
as we know you are not laboring under any ecclesiastical cen- 
sure or canonical impediment. Wherefore we request in Christ 
the Bishops of all places in which you may be to permit you 
to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 

In proof of which etc. 

Given at our palace at Omaha the 26th day of December, 
A. D. 1901. j- Richard Scannell, 

[Episcopal Seal]. Bishop of Omaha. 

I received from the Archbishop of Chicago the follow- 
ing Celebret, which was sent in obedience to the command of 

Cardinal Martinelli : 

Chicago, 111., February 7th, 1902. 
The Rev. Jeremiah J. Crowley is, so far as I am aware, 
under no ecclesiastical censure and may be permitted to say 
mass " de consensu Or dinar iorum." 

Yours faithfully, 
f P. A Feehan, Archbishop of Chicago. 

On March 9, 1902, I celebrated Solemn High Mass in 
the Archdiocese of Chicago, and I quote the following from 
the headlines of The Chicago Tribune of the next day : 

Crowley Again a Priest. 
Authorized by Martinelli to Celebrate High Mass. Of- 
ficiates at Special Services in the Church of the Immacu- 
late Conception and is Recognized by the Congregation — 
Papal Benediction on the Parish is Received and Read 
to the Members. 

Most solemn promises were made to me by Cardinal Mar- 
tinelli in person at Washington, of a parish in Chicago, salary 






CARDINAL MARTINELLI. 



58 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

from the time I was ousted from my Oregon parish, etc., 
but none of these promises was kept, as the priests against 
whom the twenty-five prominent pastors had made grave 
charges insisted that I should first sign an apology to them. 
I refused to " whitewash " them. 

It does not come within my purpose to give in this 
publication the history of this now famous and still pending 
Chicago controversy. The publication of its history remains, 
perhaps, for the future. But my readers will probably be 
able to glean a few hints of its facts and importance by perus- 
ing the quotations (a volume of which I have in my pos- 
session) which I now give from religious and secular publi- 
cations of high standing. My friends insist that I shall not 
eliminate from them the flattering expressions, and most re- 
luctantly I yield to their advice. 

Leslie's Weekly, New York, Nov. 21st, 1901. 

Chicago's Fighting Priest. 

Father Jeremiah J. Crowley, until recently pastor of the 
Catholic Church at Oregon, III, was the central figure of the 
most sensational incident in western church history, Sunday, 
November 3d. Defying a recent edict of excommunication 
from Cardinal Martinelli, of Washington, he entered the Holy 
Name Cathedral in Chicago, while solemn high mass was in 
progress, and took a seat immediately below the altar. Chan- 
cellor F. J. Barry, of the archdiocese of Chicago, was in charge 
of the mass, and in pursuance of the laws of the church that 
no excommunicated priest shall be allowed to take part in the 
services of a Catholic Church, ordered Father Crowley to leave. 
The priest quietly refused to go. The music was stopped ; the 
choir filed out, and the priests retired. Chancellor Barry ex- 
plained the situation to the congregation, most of whom left ; 
low mass was hurriedly rendered, and Father Crowley re- 
mained to the end. The sensational incident had its origin last 
July, when Father Crowley, in connection with twenty-five 
other priests, protested against the appointment of Peter J. 
Muldoon as auxiliary bishop of Chicago. Archbishop Fee- 
ban disregarded the protest. Father Crowley resigned from 
his parish in Oregon. Later he withdrew the resignation. 



INTRODUCTORY. 59 

The archbishop, however, accepted the action of Father Crow- 
ley and appointed a pastor in his stead. Father Crowley re- 
fused to give up the church and the archbishop secured an 
injunction, prohibiting Father Crowley from acting. The in- 
junction suit is still pending. The archbishop notified Father 
Crowley that he muse desist in his charge against brother 
priests or suffer excommunication. Father Crowley refused 
to withdraw his charges, and the letter of excommunication 
by Cardinal Martinelli was printed in the Chicago press. 
Father Crowley insists that he cannot be excommunicated 
without a trial. 

Father Crowley is forty years old and a man of striking 
physique. He is gifted as a scholar and orator. 

The Ram's Horn. Chicago, November 30th, 1901. 

A brave and pious priest in the Roman Catholic com- 
munion is not so scarce a personage as he was within the mem- 
ory of men now living. Indeed, it is the character of the 
priesthood that has been the chief objection which men have 
argued against this ancient church. When its own clergymen, 
however, come to a lively appreciation of the shortcomings 
of their order, hope arises that this mighty ecclesiastical sys- 
tem may have within itself the seeds of a new life. But the 
reformation, if it come, will not be without stubborn conflict, 
as is indicated by what is now taking place in the archdiocese 
of Chicago. When men were recently raised to high offices 
in the diocese, a young priest, Father J. J. Crowley by name, 
asked the church authorities for a thorough investigation of 
these men's records. The answer was a sentence of dismissal 
of Father Crowley from his own parish, which he was serv- 
ing 1 most faithfully and acceptably, and after it appeared 
that his contention was being seconded and supported by all 
honorable Catholics, he was summarily excommunicated. But 
this loud edict, which was so dreaded once, has failed to alter 
the fixed purpose of Father Crowley. He is a man whom it 
will be hard to defeat. He is finely endowed physically, stand- 
ing more than six feet high; mentally, having a thorough 
classical and theological training; and spiritually, for one to 
look into his open face and clear eyes assures one that he is 
a man who has been with God. Compared with the types 
of priest that are seen most frequently, slim, ferret-eyed, 



60 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

shifty, designing creatures, or greasy, obese, dull-witted ones, 
Crowley looks like a man from another planet. 

The St. Louis Republic. Sunday, Dec. 1st, 1901. 
Unique Case of The Reverend Jeremiah J. Crowley. 

The case of the Reverend Father Jeremiah J. Crowley, a 
priest of the Roman Catholic diocese of Chicago, who 
was excommunicated recently by authority of Cardinal Mar- 
tinelli, furnishes at once the most unique and the most inter- 
esting controversy that has ever arisen between that wonder- 
ful church and one of its anointed ministers. 

It differs from the McGlynn case, which was one of di- 
rect disobedience to the commands of Rome ; it differs from the 
famous Koslowski case, which was one of schism; it differs 
from all the minor cases in which the accusations against the 
excommunicated were based on immorality or religious infi- 
delity. 

Father Crowley is a man and a priest of high intellect- 
ual endowments ; one of rare, almost fanatical piety. His 
career as a student, as a citizen and as a minister of his 
church is exemplary from the standards of measurement with- 
in and without the Roman church. A product of Carlow Col- 
lege, a living example of the genuine Irish gentleman, young, 
handsome, a giant physically and yet a person of much ten- 
derness, as well as courage, Father Crowley stands forth in 
his own right as a personage sure to prepossess acquaintances 
and likely to win and hold their high regard. He is abstemious 
in his habits, industrious to the limit of his great physical 
power, studious to a degree, intensely sincere, direct and frank 
of mind and manner. 

The very character and reputation of the man make his 
present sad plight incredible to strangers. He has been cursed 
by Rome through a published document of excommunication 
uttered by Cardinal Martinelli. * If he died to-day his body 
would be denied burial in holy ground. His presence at mass 
in the parish church of Archbishop Feehan in Chicago has 
been sufficient to stop the ceremonial. If Lucifer himself had 
appeared in the church, no greater consternation could have 
reigned amongst the priests celebrating the sacrifice. The 
music ceased, the lights were quenched and the high cere- 
monial was abandoned. The ' preacher leveled his logic and 



INTRODUCTORY. 6l 

his eloquence against the outlawed priest, who, in spite of her 
malediction, was kneeling there worshipful, silent, alone and, 
as it seemed, defenseless against the pontifical thunderbolts 
falling around him. 

Having thus pilloried a good man and a good priest be- 
fore all men, the authorities of the Roman Catholic Church 
have at least invited the astonished curiosity of all religionists, 
all thoughtful men. What has Father Crowley done to incur 
the most awful curse that can befall either a Catholic layman 
or priest? 

According to his own statement, he began, many months 
ago, to oppose and expose the alleged sinful machinations of 
a number of clergymen then and now high in the councils of 
the Chicago diocese. To his Archbishop, and through him to 
Rome, he protested against certain deeds of priests whose lives, 
thought Father Crowley, were a menace to his church and a 
blasphemy against her holiest teachings. At first he waged 
his crusade through the secret channels of the hierarchy, not 
that he feared candor, but to evade scandal if possible. 

His efforts were absolutely ignored. If his communica- 
tions, offers of evidence, names of witnesses and other state- 
ments ever reached the proper authorities, they elicited no 
action or response. Then came Archbishop Feehan's declara- 
tion that he would appoint the Reverend P. J. Muldoon as 
auxiliary Bishop of Chicago. Twenty-five priests of the dio-* 
cese, one of whom was Father Crowley, protested against the 
appointment on grounds already exploited in the secret 
crusade against corruption and sin in the high places. The 
Archbishop ignored this protest and preparations for the con- 
secration of Father Muldoon proceeded. 

Then Father Crowley gave to the world a story of al- 
leged priestly decadence and corruption such as has been sel- 
dom charged even against ordinary self-respecting men of the 
world. The question as to whether these charges were true 
was never raised by the church authorities. The first action 
of the diocesan was to begin civil proceedings to relieve 
Father Crowley of his mission as pastor of St. Mary's Church 
at Oregon, 111. The priest defended the injunction suit thus 
brought, on the ground that he had been neither accused, tried 
nor found guilty of anything that could debar him from his 
rights as pastor. But he bowed to the arm of the civil law 
and obeyed the en joinder. A priest was sent thither to sup- 



62 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

plant him. The case took its place on the docket of the Cir- 
cuit Court of Ogle County. The briefs then issued by Crow- 
ley's attorneys contained between the flyleaves a slip of paper 
announcing that later Father Crowley would publish a book 
exposing the alleged state of affairs in the diocese of Chicago. 

Father Crowley and his friends believe that this threat 
(never carried out) was the true cause for the commotion 
which followed in the high councils of the Catholic Church. 
The offending priest was warned that unless he withdrew all 
past charges, expressed penitence and accepted the punishment 
which Archbishop Feehan might mete out within ten days 
he (Crowley) would be excommunicated. The priest, yet be- 
lieving that his charges were true and uttered in a holy cause, 
refused to recall his words. He permitted the ten days to 
elapse. 

A printed circular, with Cardinal Martinelli's name at- 
tached, was served upon him by three constables, hired lay- 
men, while the priest was at dinner. It proved to be a stere- 
otyped form of excommunication and upon the same day was 
posted in the sanctuaries of every Catholic Church in the dio- 
cese. It was a shocking surprise to Crowley, who expected 
at least a trial. The causes for the decree of excommunication 
' were summed up as. (first), "appealing to a civil court." To 
this Father Crowley replies that it was his Archbishop and 
not he who went into the civil court. The second charge was 
that Crowley had sought to defend himself in a civil court 
at law. To this the priest replies that neither priest nor man 
needs an excuse for self-preservation. The third charge was 
to the effect that he had threatened to expose the " unfor- 
tunate diocese of Chicago as he believes it to exist." 

To this last and most significant accusation Father Crow- 
ley answers : " I threatened to tell the truth about this diocese 
for no other motive than to further the best interest and pre- 
serve the sanctity of my Holy Mother Church. I do not be- 
lieve that my. church is benefited by the suppression of truth 
and the continuation of evil men in her holiest ofhces. If I 
have falsified, why do they not investigate, and prove me false ? 
But I have not. My charges were supplemented by willing 
and credible witnesses, names and dates. I am not fighting 
my church and never will. I am fighting the evil men who, 
in this diocese at least, are sapping her power, dishonoring her 
sanctuaries and blaspheming the God of all Christians, If 



INTRODUCTORY. 63 

that be a crime, I do not understand what loyalty, decency 
and virtue mean. But, right or wrong, I am entitled to a 
trial. The meanest criminal is supposed to be innocent until 
proven guilty. My worst enemies accuse me of no sin. I 
believe that my church will yet hear me ; that she will uphold me. 
But, come what may, I shall never fight against nor villify 
my church. I shall remain a Roman Catholic, as I was born 
and as I am to-day." 

Father Crowley has appealed to Rome through the Amer- 
ican Ablegate, Cardinal Martinelli. He is willing to with- 
draw from the fight if the church authorities will appoint an 
unbiased court and investigate the charges he has made against 
his fellow-priests of this diocese. He is willing to abide by the 
results of that investigation. He believes it will be given. 

Meanwhile he continues to attend holy mass in the face 
of physical, oratorical and tacit opposition. His opponents, 
clerical and lay, insist that he has already committed the un- 
pardonable crime of scandalizing his church by accusations 
against her clergy. They insist that even the truth of those 
charges cannot condone the inherent offense. His friends 
and adherents, and they include some of the ablest and best 
of the priests and laity of the Chicago diocese, contend that 
there can be no sin in telling truth, in exposing corruption, 
no matter how cloaked with the sacred vesture of office. They 
say that there are bad priests, just as there are bad preachers, 
bad merchants, dishonest lawyers, but, they argue, it is the 
duty of honest Catholics to " drive them out." 

(The Interior, April 3, 1902. Editorial Column.) 

Every new movement made by Archbishop Feehan and 
Bishop Muldoon of this city to crush Father Crowley is of 
a nature calculated to convince the Protestant onlooker that 
the priest has attacked the prelates and their favorites at a 
point where they do not dare to make a fair reply. Father 
Crowley's charges of immorality among the clergy of the dio- 
cese have been definite enough in all conscience to deserve 
attention, but his overlords absolutely refuse to order or sub- 
mit to investigation. As a climax to his tyranny Archbishop 
Feehan has issued an edict prescribing that any priest who 
gives countenance to Crowley shall by that act be automatically 
suspended from the priesthood. This is done in spite of the 
fact that Father Crowley has been upheld by the highest 



64 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

authority of the Catholic hierarchy in this country, Monsignor 
Martinelli, and stands now in perfect nominal relations to the 
church. This decree of ostracism, a punishment not only 
without conviction but even without charges, is full of the 
very spirit of the old-time Inquisition. We can only hope that 
for it the archbishop will incur the avenging wrath of the papal 
delegate whose will he has virtually defied. Martinelli, of 
course, is as tyrannical as anybody, but there would be some 
rude kind of justice in an apportionment to Feehan of a good 
big dose of his own sort of medicine. 

The Ram's Horn, Chicago, June 28, 1902, Editorial Column. 

The most important question before the Vatican is, what 
will it do with the many protests on file there against the ir- 
regularities and immoralities in the church itself? These are 
made by good Catholics. They are not attacks from without, 
but are appeals from priests and people within. Conditions 
as they exist in the archdiocese of Chicago are perhaps akin 
to those which exist elsewhere. Instead of disproving Father 
Crowley's charges or giving him a chance to prove them, the 
church excommunicated him. He was, however, almost im- 
mediately restored to church communion, which act was a 
confession that he was right, and yet there is no evident in- 
tention of cleansing the church of its unworthy priests. 

Archbishop Feehan died July 12th, 1902, and Bishop 
Quigley, of Buffalo, N. Y., was appointed his successor, com- 
ing to Chicago March 12, 1903. 

Archbishop Quigley of the Archdiocese of Chicago, with 
full knowledge of the villainy of some of the priests of his 
Archdiocese complained of by the twenty-five protesting pas- 
tors, has demanded that I sign a document which would in 
effect whitewash them. At our last interview he handed me 
an apology in Latin and what purported to be a translation 
of it in English, the latter paper bearing across its top in the 
handwriting of His Grace the words, " Authentic translation. 
J. E. Quigley." I now give a photographic copy of this trans- 
lation. 



£?/'//! e a <4k s?^Z A^yfk^fato s ' 



s 



Chicago, 111. ' *x" / 

Moat Reverend and Dear Archbishop: 

Having come to the conclusion that the course pursued by me 
for the last two years Is altogether wrong, and having In mind the 
solemn promise of reverence and obedience to my Bishop, which I made 
on the day of my ordination, I hereby renew that promise and pledge 
myself to be henceforth to your Grace, an obedient eon In Christ. 

I regret and deplore the Injury I have done to certain of 
my fellow-priests by publishing charges against them after said charges 
had been duly considered and set aside by the competent ecclesiastical 
authority, and I pledge myself to accept any penance which your Grace 
may deem fit In satisfaction therefor. 

I sincerely engage myself to do all In my power to stop the 
further publication of anything which may give scandal or offense. I 
hereby bind myself to submit all matters of grievance or dispute be- 
tween me and my confreres to the judgment of the proper ecclesiastical 
authorities; and I will abide by their decision. Therefore I have 
withdrawn certain cases now pending in the civil courts, specified by 
me in another letter of even date with this; renouncing at the same 
time all right on my part to re-open them. 

Henceforth I shall earnestly endeavor to repair my short-com- 
ings of the past. I will accept without question any charge your Grace 

shall confer upon me after my re-instatement. Your Grace has ray per- 
mission to make public this letter at any time or in any way you may 
select. Trusting that your Grace will find it possible to restore me 
shortly to the full exercise of faculties aa.a priest of the Arch- 
diocese of Chicago, I remain, 

Your Grace's 
most obedient servant In Christ* 



To the Most Reverend James Edward Qulgley, 

Archbishop of Chicago. 



66 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Catholic people, note this : I was but one of a band of 
twenty-five priests of the Archdiocese of Chicago who pro- 
tested against clerical corruption. I alone am made to feel the 
weight of ecclesiastical displeasure, and I alone am commanded 
to apologize for telling the truth. I have been subjected to 
persecution. My name has been unjustly removed from the 
directory of the Catholic clergy of the Archdiocese of Chicago. 
I have not received, as is my ecclesiastical right, any financial 
support from the funds of the Archdiocese. I have been left 
without a parish, without a home, without any salary, and have 
been uncanonically forbidden by the authorities of the Chi- 
cago Archdiocese to say Mass, or in any way to exercise my 
" faculties " as a priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago, although 
I have a " Celebret." I am convinced that I have been sub- 
jected to this cruel treatment with the deliberate design of forc- 
ing me to- apologize to corrupt priests. 

For the information of my readers I now state that a 
" Celebret " is a canonical document which is given to a priest 
by the head of the diocese to which he belongs, or by some 
higher Church dignitary of competent jurisdiction, when that 
priest travels outside of his own diocese. It is, in effect, a 
certificate that he is of good moral character and not laboring 
under any ecclesiastical censure or canonical impediment. 

I have never looked upon the face of Archbishop Quig- 
ley since March 28, 1903, when he handed me the apologies 
in Latin and English. These papers, it is needless to say, 
remain and will remain unsigned. I will never sign a lie for 
any man, be he layman, priest, Bishop, Archbishop, Cardinal 
or Pope I I have nothing to regret or retract. I can only 
say: God save the Roman Catholic Church! 

Archbishop Falconio succeeded Cardinal Martinelli as 
Papal Delegate to the Church in the United States. He was 
made fully acquainted with the details of the Chicago con- 
troversy by a mass of official documents on file in the Dele- 
gation Office; and a correspondence ensued between His Ex- 
cellency and myself looking towards a settlement of it. I 
now give a photographic copy of one of his letters to me: 






&'&£' ss^y&vi-'.j ,v. 



ISnitetf states of ^.turcica. 

No. Jill 

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68 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

My reply to the letter of Archbishop Falconio of June 
6, 1903, was as follows: 

Sherman House, Chicago, June 9, 1903. 
His Excellency, 

Most Revd. Diomede Falconio, 
Apostolic Delegate, 
Washington, U. S. A. 
May it Please your Excellency: 

I beg to own receipt of your kind favor of the 6th inst, 
in which you inform me that you have been carefully look- 
ing into my case, and that you are ready to render your de- 
cision. 

I should be glad to comply with your request to come 
to Washington on the 19th inst., accompanied by my advocate. 
But the fact is the latter gentleman is now in California, on 
an indefinite leave of absence. Moreover, I am somewhat 
deterred by the consideration of expense, since this would be 
my third journey to Washington on a similar errand, both 
of which proved fruitless, and I scarcely feel justified in thus 
using funds generously contributed by loyal friends in dif- 
ferent parts of the country, to whom I feel in a measure 
responsible. You will kindly bear in mind, your Excellency, 
that I am placed in this dependent position by reason of the 
fact that, though I am a priest of this Archdiocese, I have 
not been allowed one dollar for salary or support since Aug. 
3, 1901. In view of my inability to come to Washington with 
my advocate, I must trust to your fair consideration of the 
subject, which has been fully presented to you in person by 
my advocate and myself, April 3rd, 1903, and later, in a 
formal written statement, under date of April 17th. 

Permit me again to beg simply that I may have your 
early decision. With profound esteem, I am, 

Your most obedient and humble servant in Xt., 

Jeremiah J. Crowley. 

About June 17, 1903, Archbishop Falconio and Arch- 
bishop Quigley met in the City of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, 
and discussed the Chicago controversy. Archbishop Falconio 
evidently departed from that interview determined to use his 
influence to compel me to sign the apology which had been 



INTRODUCTORY. 69 

presented to me by Archbishop Quigley, a photographic copy 
of the English translation of which I have already given. 

My canonist is one of the most prominent priests in the 
Catholic Church in America, and he told me that Archbishop 
Falconio placed in his hands in the City of Washington, on 
June 19, 1903, a document which was signed by fourteen of 
the accused priests, in which they begged the Papal Dele- 
gate to compel me to sign an apology to rehabilitate them 
before the world, solemnly declaring that they were under 
such a cloud since the accusations against them had been 
made public that they were not welcome to the homes of 
their own relatives. On this occasion Archbishop Falconio 
told my canonist that he would be in Milwaukee on June 
30, and requested him to tell me to call upon him there. 

I now give an abridged account of the interview that I 
had by appointment with Archbishop Falconio, the successor 
of Cardinal Martinelli as Papal Delegate to the Catholic 
Church in America. He arrived in Milwaukee, Saturday, 
the 27th of June, 1903. I went to Milwaukee the following 
Tuesday morning and saw His Excellency. He said : " Are 
you going to sign that apology ? " I said : " No, Your Ex- 
cellency, I most respectfully decline to do so." He said: 
'Why?' I said: " Because I would be signing a lie! Our 
charges were never, as it states, duly considered and set aside 
by the competent ecclesiastical authority." He said : " Yes 
they were ! ' I said : " How ? Do you mean to tell me, 
Your Excellency, that our charges were duly investigated ? ' 
He said : " They were not investigated, but they were duly 
considered and set aside." I asked : " How were they duly 
considered and set aside ? " He said : " Why, your superior 
officers took your charges, looked at them, and then threw 
them into a wastebasket!" I replied: "Your Excellency, 
I must insist that that was very far from being a canonical 
consideration, investigation and setting aside of our charges." 

Pius X. now sits in Peter's Chair. I am confident that 
in due time His Holiness will decide the Chicago controversy 



yO THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

and that He will settle it on the basis of Fiat justitia ruat 
c'oelum — let justice be done though the heavens fall. 

In 1897 I took out my first naturalization papers in Amer- 
ica; and I became a full-fledged citizen of the United States 
in 1 90 1. I do not forget my native land! The shamrock is 
in my heart ! I am proud of an Irish ancestry whose char- 
acters were formed by the noblest ecclesiastical and patriotic 
ideals. But America is my country by adoption; I glory in 
her history; I rejoice in her free institutions; my ardent 
prayers ascend for the continued blessing of Almighty God 
to be poured upon her. My highest civic ambition is to dis- 
charge to the letter the solemn obligations which I assumed 
in my oath of naturalization. 

Humbly and devoutly I thank God for ever calling me to 
minister at the sacred altars of His Holy Church. My supreme 
religious joy is the fact that I am in her priesthood. I have 
no other desire than to be faithful unto death to my duties as 
a Catholic priest. I believe that the Church is a divine 
institution — the bride of Christ. For Her welfare I have 
counted it a joy to labor; for Her good I am glad to suffer; 
in Her behalf I will cheerfully lay down life itself. In the 
Catholic Church I was born ; in the Catholic Church I have 
lived; in the Catholic Church I will die. 

I am not unmindful of the seriousness of the position 
which I take in openly exposing the parochial school, in directly 
championing the American public school, and in boldly assail- 
ing ecclesiastical wickedness in high and low places. I 
know full well the greatness of the power — financial, social 
and ecclesiastical — which I oppose. I know that it has vast 
capital and great prestige. I know that it dines with rulers 
and is on terms of intimacy with governors, judges and other 
public officials. I know by several personal attacks that it has 
henchmen who are ready to take life for pay. I know that 
it claims to be able to muzzle the press, and that by a show 
of its strength it stifles protests against its wrong-doing. But 



INTRODUCTORY. 7 1 

I know some other things. I know that God lives. I know 
that the genius of His Church is against ecclesiastical corrup- 
tion of every kind. I know that the honest Catholic people of 
America are crying out for deliverance from ecclesiastical tyr- 
anny, immorality and grafting. I know that the masses of 
the American people are lovers of purity, truth and justice, 
and that they are loyal to the Republic. I know that this is 
not the first time in human history that a lone man, relying 
only upon the blessing of God and the approbation of decent 
men, has assaulted intrenched iniquity and overthrown it. I 
do not dread the struggle, for 

" Simple duty hath no place for fear." 



CHAPTER II. 



THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL AND CATHOLIC CLERICAL HOS 
TILITY TOWARD THE PUBLIC SCHOOL. 



Historic Statement 

The parochial school in America owes its beginning, ac- 
cording to Bishop Spalding of Peoria, Illinois, to the German 
Catholics. In his lecture entitled, " The Catholic Church in 
the United States," delivered at the Church of Notre Dame, 

Chicago, January 24, 1904, before a representative audience, 
he said: 

Fifty years ago there was a great difference of opinion 
amongst Catholics in this country about the religious school. 
Some of the leading Bishops, some of the most active minds, 
had misgivings, — were rather in favor of simply accepting 
the school as it existed, and of not attempting to create a dis- 
tinctively religious school. We owe, I think, this great move- 
ment, or at least the beginning of this great movement, largely 
to the German Catholics. 

It was among the German Catholics first that insistence 
upon the necessity of a religious school was made, and not 
made wholly from religious motives. The Germans, as you 
know, are of all people in this country, the most tenacious of 
their mother-tongue. They are a tenacious race, strong, 
sturdy, persevering, without frivolity, not easily influenced 
by new surroundings, loving their own customs, as well as 
their own tongue. 

Now, from a desire to perpetuate their language, as well 
as from a desire to instill into the minds and hearts of their 
children the faith which they had brought across the ocean 
with them, they began to establish schools, and they showed 
us how easy it is, — how easily a congregation of one hundred 
families, in the country, in villages, can build and maintain 
a Catholic school. 



ORIGIN HATRED OF PUBLIC SCHOOL. 73 

And then, attention being attracted to it, it more and 
more grew upon the consciences of the Catholic Bishops, 
and priests and people, that this was the one thing that God 
called us to do, more than anything else, if we would make 
our faith abiding here in this new world, and in this democratic 
society. 

The Real Reasons for its Establishment. 

From the words of Bishop Spalding it will be seen that 
the Catholic parochial school in America is many years younger 
than the American public school. The Bishop attributes the 
adoption and the carrying out of the German Catholics' 
parochial school idea to the recognition by Catholic bishops, 
priests and people of a call from God. The fact is that Cath- 
olic bishops and priests were the ones who seized upon the 
parochial school idea. The Catholic people did not want the 
parochial school. Why did the priests and prelates adopt it 
and why do they champion it to-day? The answer is fourfold. 
First: because they saw and see that there never can be any 
union of Church and State in this Republic as long as its 
citizens are the product of public schools. Second : they saw 
and see that the indoctrination of Catholic children with lib- 
eral and progressive ideas is impossible in schools wholly 
under Catholic clerical influence. Third : they saw and see 
that the parochial school gives ample opportunity to train 
Catholic children to close their eyes, ears and mouths to cler- 
ical drunkenness, grafting and immorality. Fourth : they saw 
and see. in tKe parochial school an immense opportunity for 
graft. 

The Catholic parochial school in the United States is not 
founded on loyalty to the Republic, and the ecclesiastics who 
control it would throttle, if they could, the liberties of the 
American people. 

Clerical Coercion of Catholics. 

It is my profound conviction that the masses of the Cath- 
olic people prefer the public schools, and that they send their 



74 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

children to the parochial schools to avoid eternal punishment, 
as their pastors preach from the pulpit, " Catholic parents who 
send their children to the godless public schools are going 
straight to hell." 

The Jesuits are particularly vicious toward the public 
school. In the Holy Family Church, the largest parish in 
Chicago, in 1902, during a mission, at which there were pres- 
ent at least 2500 people, all being women, the Jesuit preacher 
said: 

Parents who send their children to the godless public 
schools are going straight to hell. I make this statement in 
the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. Now, I want you good 
mothers, whose children attend the parochial school, to kneel 
down and offer up with me, from the bottom of your hearts, 
three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys for the conversion 
of these wicked and benighted parents who are sending their 
children to the godless public schools. 

A lady friend of mine, a most intelligent and respectable 
Catholic mother, told me she never was in such a plight in 
her life. She had a child in the public school, and, of course, 
remained seated. Women knelt all around her. Right by her 
side knelt a drunken woman, who/ as she prayed from the bot- 
tom of her heart, in unison with her pastor, peered right into 
her face, and nearly suffocated her with the fumes of whis- 
key. It is needless to add that my friend was not converted 
to the parochial school. 

Some priests refuse absolution to parents whose children 
attend the public schools. Others compel parents, through 
the confessional, to promise to send their children to the pa- 
rochial schools. 

Catholic children, who attend the public school, are denied 
certain spiritual privileges. I quote, as an illustration, the 
following from the Cathedral Calendar, published by the Holy 
Name Cathedral, Chicago, September, 1902; p. 7: 



ORIGIN — HATRED OF PUBLIC SCHOOL. 75 

Attendance at the parish school will be an absolutely 
necessary condition for the children who hope to make their 
First Holy Communion next spring. 

In some parishes the children of Catholic families who 
attend the public school are not permitted to receive their 
first Holy Communion on the same Sunday morning that 
the parochial school children receive theirs, but have 
to wait a week or two, although equally prepared. For the 
parochial school communicants special preparations are made 
in decorations, processions, music, etc. There are no special 
preparations made by the pastor for the public school com- 
municants. The course pursued toward the public school 
children is with malice aforethought and is intended to so 
humiliate them (and their parents) that they will leave the 
public school. 

At the children's Mass on Sunday morning the parochial 
school pupils are given the better seats, while the public school 
scholars are crowded into the undesirable parts of the church. 

To show still further the pressure put by prelates upon 
Catholic parents to force them to send their children to pa- 
rochial schools I quote from page 4 of The Catholic Telegraph 
(published in Cincinnati, Ohio, U. S. A.) of August 25, 1904, 
the following letter: 

To the Clergy and Laity of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati 
Dearly Beloved - : 

As the Catholic schools are about to open, We consider 
it opportune to address you on the important obligation of 
parents to provide for the Catholic education of their children. 
There are, We regret to be obliged to say, some fathers and 
mothers, who, either for the sake of fancied advantages, or 
through indifference, or on account of feeling against priest 
or teacher send their children to non-Catholic schools. 

It is undeniable, that as a rule, all Catholic teaching is 
excluded from non-Catholic schools and that in them there is 
usually present some kind of false religious influence. Now 
a system of education for the young, in which Catholic faith 
and the direction of the Church are excluded,* can not be ap- 



y6 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

proved by any Catholic. The Church considers it vital to a 
child's faith, that the spirit of religion should animate every 
part of the scholar's task, and influence every hour of his time 
in school. The teachers should be good Catholics, well in- 
structed in their faith, and be capable to thoroughly drill the 
children in religion. The Church recognizing this necessity 
has always opposed the separation of education and religion, 
and hence has condemned those who advocate it. . . In the 
Encyclical of Leo XIII. " Noblissima " of the 8th of February, 
1884, occur the following words : " The Church has over and 
over again loudly condemned those schools which are called 
Mixed or Neutral, warning parents to be careful in a thing 
so momentous." 

These pronouncements of the Holy See are the law for 
all. The legislation of the III. Plenary Council of Baltimore 
is based upon them. It is evident, then, that the doctrine of 
the church, which it would be erroneous, scandalous and even 
savoring of heresy to contradict, is that to attend a non-Cath- 
olic school constitutes usually a grave and permanent dan- 
ger to faith, and that, therefore, it is a mortal sin for any 
parents to send their children to such a school, except where 
there is no other suitable school, and unless such precautions 
are taken as to make the danger remote. 

In applying this teaching to practical life there are dif- 
ficulties. We often meet with parents who object to sending 
their children to Catholic schools on account of certain fea- 
tures which they dislike or who prefer non-Catholic schools 
on account of certain advantages. They claim that, if they 
take due precaution to have their children properly instructed 
and brought up in piety, they can not justly be interfered with. 
But such a claim can not be admitted. This is a religious 
question and is, therefore, within the sphere of the Church 
authority. In such questions it belongs to the Church not 
only to pronounce on the principle involved, but also on its 
application to particular cases and individual Catholics. It 
is the office of the Bishops, as the III. Plenary Council of Balti- 
more teaches, to judge both of the alleged necessity, and of the 
sufficiency of the precaution. This is a matter, then, which 
lies within the jurisdiction of the spiritual power, and it is far 
from the true Catholic spirit to decide such a grave question 
for oneself. 

Moreover, there is another aspect of the subject which 



ORIGIN — HATRED OF PUBLIC SCHOOL. Jf 

shows still more clearly how necessary it is to abide by the 
judgment of the Church. It is almost impossible for a Cath- 
olic parent to send his child to a non-Catholic school anywhere 
in the country where there is a Catholic one without causing 
scandal. That is to say, such action suggests to other Cath- 
olic parents to do the same; it has the appearance of religious 
indifference ; and it tends to break down the strictness and firm- 
ness of Catholic faith. It is, therefore, nearly always, a very 
grievous scandal especially when the parent in question is a 
person of some standing and influence. Now an action which 
involves scandal of this kind can only be justified by a very 
grave necessity. It is the duty of the parent, therefore, to take 
the judgment of the Church both upon the possible extent of 
the scandal and the reason for risking it. The foregoing prin- 
ciples justify us in laying down the following rules: 

1. In places where there is a Catholic school parents are 
obliged under the pain of mortal sin to send their children to 
it. This rule holds good, not only in case of children who 
have not yet made their first Communion, but also in case of 
those who have received it. Parents should send their chil- 
dren to the Catholic school as long as its standards and grades 
are as good as those of the non-Catholic school. And even 
if there is no school attached to the congregation of which 
parents are members, they would still be obliged to send theii 
children to a parochial school, college or academy, if they can 
do so without great hardships either to themselves or to their 
children. 

2. It is the province of the Bishop to decide whether a par- 
ish should be exempted from having a parish school, and 
whether, in case there be a Catholic in the place, parents may 
send their children to a non-Catholic school. Each case must be 
submitted to Us, except when there is question of children liv- 
ing three or more miles distant from a Catholic school. Such 
children can hardly be compelled to attend the Catholic school. 

3. As the obligation of sending a child to a Catholic 
school binds under the pain of mortal sin, it follows that the 
neglect to comply with it, is a matter of accusation, when 
going to confession. We fail to see how fathers and mothers 
who omit to accuse themselves of this fault can believe that 
they are making an entire confession of their sins. 

4. Confessors are hereby forbidden to give absolution to 
parents, who without permission of the Archbishop send their 



7& THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

children to non-Catholic schools, unless such parents promise 
either to send them to the Catholic school, at the time to be 
fixed by the Confessor, or, at least agree, within two weeks 
from the day of confession, to refer the case to the Archbishop, 
and abide by his decision. If they refuse to do either one or 
the other, the Confessor can not give them absolution, and 
should he attempt to do so, such absolution would be null and 
void. Cases of this kind are hereby numbered among the re- 
served cases from September i, 1904. 

5. The loss of Catholic training which the children suffer 
by being sent to non-Catholic schools must as far as 
possible be counteracted. Wherefore, we strictly enjoin that 
Diocesan Statute No. 64, be adhered to : " We decree that 
those who are to be admitted to first holy Communion shall 
have spent at least two years in Catholic Schools. This rule 
is to be observed also by superiors of colleges and academies." 
This Statute was enacted in Our Synod in 1898, and we regret 
that it has not always been observed. The necessity of com- 
plying with it is evident. It is difficult to properly prepare 
for first Communion even the children who have always 
attended Catholic schools ; and it is simply impossible to 
do so when the children are allowed to go to non-Catholic 
schools up to a few months before they are to make their 
first holy Communion. Pastors, superiors of academies and 
colleges are admonished to observe this regulation. No ex- 
ception is to be made to it without Our permission. In places 
where there is no Catholic school, Pastors will confer with 
Us as to the provision, which should be made for the instruc- 
tion for first Communion. 

6. Pastors seeking to prevent parents from taking their 
children too soon out of school have made regulations regard- 
ing the age of first Communion. As there has been some dis- 
crepancy in regard to this matter, some fixing one age, some 
a different one, and in consequence causing dissatisfaction 
among parents and children, We hereby direct that no child 
shall be admitted to first Communion, made publicly and sol- 
emnly, unless it has completed its thirteenth year on or be- 
fore the day fixed for first Communion. 

7. It is the Pastor's duty to decide whether the children 
of his parish have sufficient knowledge for making their first 
Communion. Hence, children attending a Catholic school 
other than the parish school, as well as those going to colleges 



ORIGIN — HATRED OF PUBLIC SCHOOL. 79 

and academies, must not be permitted to first Communion un- 
less their Pastor has testified that they are sufficiently in- 
structed for approaching the Holy Table. . . Pastors will read 
this letter to their Congregations on the last Sunday in August. 
May God bless all, and especially bless parents, their 
children and all engaged in the work of Catholic education. 

Sincerely yours in Christ, 

f William Henry Elder, 

Archbishop of Cincinnati. 
Given at Cincinnati this 18th day of August. 

In the Archdiocese of Chicago, and elsewhere, there is 
no publicly proclaimed statute such as obtains in the Arch- 
diocese of Cincinnati, but there is in reality a rule that Cath- 
olic children who attend the public schools may not (at the 
option of the pastor) receive instruction for first Communion. 
Several of the Chicago priests, during the past year, have 
told their congregations that owing to orders from " head- 
quarters ' they would be compelled to refuse instruction for 
first Communion and Confirmation to Catholic children who 
attended the public schools. 

On the Sunday preceding the opening of the public 
schools for the fall term, the studied attack of the priests upon 
the " godless " schools, from the altar or the pulpit, is appall- 
ing. The intelligent, independent parents, who persist in send- 
ing their children to the public schools, are pictured as finally 
arriving in hell, and their children as moral wrecks, the sons in 
penitentiaries, and the daughters in places of shame. At last 
there is a family reunion in the place of the damned, where 
the children curse their parents, and say, " We are here be- 
cause you sent us to the godless public school." 

A Specific Case of Coercion by a Sodomite. 

In 1899 an imposing church dedication took place in the 
United States. The dedicatory sermon was preached by Arch- 
bishop Ireland of St. Paul, Minnesota. The occasion was 
graced with the presence of Archbishop Kain of St. Louis, 



80 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Missouri; Bishop Scannell of Omaha, Nebraska; Bishop 
O'Gorman of Sioux Falls, Iowa; Rev. Jeremiah J. Harty, 
pastor of St. Leo's Church, St. Louis, Missouri, and now 
Archbishop of Manila-, Philippine Islands ; the Very Rev. Wil- 
liam J. Kerby, Ph. D., Professor, of Washington, D. C. ; and 
many others. Letters of regret were received from Arch- 
bishop Christie of Portland, Oregon; Bishop Hogan of Kan- 
sas City, Missouri; Bishop Allen of Mobile, Alabama; and 
Bishop Gallagher of Galveston, Texas. 

Prior to the dedicatory sermon the pastor announced that 
the parochial school would open the following Wednesday, 
and in this connection he said : 

It will be expected that all of the children of this parish 
shall attend this school if they attend any. I have determined 
that I will not ask the Archbishop on behalf of anybody for 
permission to attend any school other than the parochial. 
Such requests must go directly from the persons desiring the 
permission, and not through me. 

In other words this pastor served notice upon the Catholic 
people of his parish that their children must go to the paro- 
chial school if any, and that Catholic parents would have to 
go to their Archbishop for permission to send them elsewhere. 
Just imagine plain Catholic people making such a request of 
their Archbishop ! ! ! That Archbishop was a Krupp gun 
against the public school. 

This pastor was later formally charged with sodomy, 
and he was forced to leave his parish by enraged lay people, 
the ecclesiastical authorities ignoring (as usual) the charges. 
He is on terms of intimacy with princes of the Church, in- 
cluding American Papal Delegates, and he was instrumental 
at Rome in securing a Philippine Island See for one of his 
bosom American clerical chums. He is now himself a high 
dignitary of the Church in the Philippine Islands. I shall refer 
to him again in Chapter IV. of this book. 



origin — hatred of public school. 8l 

Not Five Per Cent, of Catholic Men Favor Parochial 

School. 

Catholic public school opponents declare that at least one- 
third of the American people favor their position. I deny it. 
I am morally certain that not five per cent, of the Catholic men 
of America endorse at heart the parochial school. They 
may send their children to the parochial schools to keep peace 
in the family and to avoid an open rupture with the parish 
rector; they may be induced to pass resolutions of approval 
of the parochial school in their lodges and conventions ; but 
if it ever becomes a matter of blood not one per cent, of them 
will be found outside of the ranks of the defenders of the 
American public school. 

If a perfectly free ballot could be cast by the Catholic men 
of America for the perpetuity or suppression of the parochial 
school, it would be suppressed by an astounding majority. 

The plain Catholic laymen know that the public school 
is vastly superior to the parochial school in its methods, equip- 
ment and pedagogic talent. They know, too, that the public 
is the poor man's school. They know that the public school 
prepares, as no other can, their children for the keen strug- 
gle of American life and the stern duties of American citizen- 
ship. 

Prelates and priests work upon the fears and feelings of 
the women and children, and the fathers, to have peace in their 
families, yield and send their children to the parochial school. 

Catholic Clerical Hostility Toward the 
Public School. 

There is an open, notorious and virulent hostility of 
priests and prelates, at home and abroad, toward the public 
school. 

Catholic publications are filled with articles and editorials 
which show most malignant hatred of the public school. 

Catholic clerical hostility toward the public school is 



82 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

a fact with which the American people will be forced to deal 
sooner or later — the sooner the better. 

Annihilation of the Public School the Object. 

I assert that it is the set purpose of the great majority 
of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy in America to destroy, root 
and branch, the present system of Ameiican public schools. 

Bishop Spalding says (as I have quoted in the beginning 
of this chapter), "Fifty years ago there was a great difference 
of opinion amongst Catholics in this country about the religious 
(parochial) school." Unfortunately the clean prelates and 
priests of " fifty years ago " were whipped into line, and the 
unpatriotic and ruinous course of attacking the public schools 
prevailed. 

The contents of this book, I submit, amply support my 
contention under this heading. 

Destructive Clerical Tactics. 

The Catholic clerical scheme to utterly destroy the Amer- 
ican public school has these, among other, phases : 

1. The bringing of the public school into contempt by 
characterizing it as " godless," " vicious," " a sink of corrup- 
tion," etc., etc. 

2. The securing for the Catholic parochial school the 
largest possible share of the public school tax funds. 

3. The encouraging of other sects to start sectarian schools 
and to demand public moneys in payment for the secular edu- 
cation of the children. 

4. The securing of a Catholic majority on public school 
boards and on the teaching staff of the public schools in the 
hope of being able thereby to lower the tone of instruction and 
discipline in the public schools and thus bring the public 
schools into disfavor. 

5. Securing the employment of nuns and monks as public 
school teachers. 



ORIGIN HATRED OF PUBLIC SCHOOL. 83 

6. The prevention of normal school training of public 
school teachers. 

By these and other means Catholic ecclesiastics hope to 
destroy the public school system, and to make the parochial 
school supreme. 

I have had many conversations with members of the 
American Catholic Hierarchy during the past eighteen years 
about the public and parochial schools in America. The 
ecclesiastical champions of the latter have stated that the in- 
sistent demand of the Catholic hierarchy for a division of the 
public school money would eventually be granted; that the 
American people would grow weary of the school contention 
and to escape it would adopt the Catholic view ; that then 
every effort would be made to secure the largest possible • 
grants of public money; that the other sects would, out of 
envy, demand similar grants for their various schools, and 
that they would be encouraged by the Catholic dignitaries to 
press their claim ; that the consequence would be the disrup- 
tion of the public school system by the competition and an- 
tagonism of such sectarian bodies ; and that the ultimate re- 
sult would be the supremacy of the Catholic Church in secu- 
lar teaching by virtue of Her strong organization and great 
resources through Her various teaching orders. 

The State Must Not Educate the Child. 

Catholics have it dinned into their ears constantly that 
the " education of children belongs to the parents and is foreign 
to the State," and that the parents cannot yield this right to 
the State. They are taught that the State is excluded from 
educating children. 

The logical effect of this assertion is to take the educat- 
ing of the children of the land wholly from the State and place 
it entirely in the control of the parents of the children. If 
the parents are religionists who believe that their church is 
the mouth-piece of God, then the education of their children 
comes naturally under the control of their church. This doc- 



84 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

trine would give to the Mormon church, for example, the ex- 
clusive training and educating of all Mormon children. And 
when the parents are not religionists but disciples of peculiar 
anti-social tenets this doctrine would insure the rearing of the 
children of those parents in those anti-social tenets. The right 
of the anarchist under this doctrine is as sacred as the right 
of the Mormon or of the Catholic. 

But I contend that the State has a vital interest in every 
child born within its borders. The State is in the child. Self- 
protection and perpetuity indicate at least two of the para- 
mount duties of the State. The State should endeavor to pro- 
tect itself, and the State should try to insure its own per- 
petuity- Parents may be permitted to educate their children 
but it is always on the presumption that the education they im- 
part will not vitiate the State and tend to produce its downfall. 

If parents teach their children to steal, the State must 
interfere. If parents insist upon rearing their children in ig- 
norance, the State must enforce compulsory education. If 
parents teach their children traitorous sentiments towards the 
Commonwealth by the direction of their church, or permit 
their church to teach such sentiments to their children in paro- 
chial schools, the State is recreant to its paramount duties if 
it does not intervene. 

The fact is that the Catholic ecclesiastical enemies of the 
public schools, in their anxiety to imbue the Catholic people 
with a belief in the exclusive right and duty of parents to 
educate their children, press the matter too far. They are 
serving the future, however, for their inimical attitude will 
eventually cause Americans to demand a full ascertainment 
of and a rigid insistence upon the rights of the State in the 
child, and when these are accomplished secular education out- 
side of public schools will be abolished. 

Minority Rights. 

The plea is made by Catholic ecclesiastics that the minor- 
ity have rights as well as the majority. But in reference to 



ORIGIN — HATRED OF PUBLIC SCHOOL. 85 

the public schools there is no minority. The public schools 
are open to all the children — none are excluded. It is silly 
for any set of people, who willfully keep their children from 
attending the public schools, to declare that they are a minor- 
ity in the Commonwealth and that as such minority they have 
a right to impart to their children secular education in paro- 
chial schools at the expense of the State. The Mormons can 
make the ' minority " plea with as good grace as Catholics. 
The State does its full duty when it provides and maintains 
a thorough system of secular education for the children of 
the Commonwealth, free to all the children alike. Any parent 
who wants something else seeks a superfluity or a luxury and 
should' pay for it himself. 

The plea for the " rights of the minority " is but a wily 
attempt to dignify the hateful attitude of the ecclesiastical 
opponents of the public schools, and to excuse the reaching 
of their hands into the public purse. 

A Division of the Public School Funds. 

Catholic priests and prelates are demanding a share of 
the public school funds as pay for the secular education which 
Catholic children receive in the parochial schools. This de- 
mand for pay for the secular education of children in paro- 
chial schools is fairly stated by Father James S. Hayes, a 
Jesuit, who is quoted with approval in an article in The New 
World, the official organ of the Archdiocese of Chicago, of 
February 6. 1904, page 17, as follows : 

Every school that does the work of education in a way 
to satisfy the requirements of the state in all the secular 
branches of instruction is entitled to state support, no matter 
to what religious denomination the school managers may be- 
long. The state schools which teach no religion and are there- 
fore fatally defective are nevertheless supported out of the 
public taxes solely for their work of secular instruction. In 
all justice, then, to religious schools, if they give the 
same amount of secular instruction as the others are entitled 
to the same support for the secular instruction they give. 



86 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Why not ? Can any man except the unreasoning bigot see why 
they should not be treated alike? If, in addition to the secular 
instruction required by the state, the religious schools also 
teach religion because the parents want it, the state can have 
no objection. It will not pay for the religious instruction, 
but it will not hinder it, because it has no right to do so. The 
parents want it and they are willing to pay for it. What can 
be more just and sensible than this plan, " an equal wage for 
equal work " ?. Let the Catholic or Anglican or Methodist 
school do the same work in secular instruction as the state 
school, and why should it not receive the same pay from the 
state for work which fully complies with the requirements of 
the State? Let us take our stand on this platform, "The 
same pay for the same work." That seems to offer to the 
people of the United States the fairest solution of the school 
question. 

In this connection I quote, without comment, the fol- 
lowing : 

The Chicago American, Dec. 20, 1903. 

The supremacy of the state in all things is a denial of 
God. The state has not the right to tax all the people for 
schools which all the people do not patronize. The state must 
provide schools for the minority as well as for the majority. 

Archbishop James Edward Quigley coupled criticism of 
the public school system with a demand for state support of 
parochial schools in an address before the Catholic Woman's 
League in Corinthian Hall, the Masonic Temple, yesterday. 
The Catholic Archbishop of Chicago took strong ground 
against the secularization of education, and declared that the 
church and not the state should have the guidance of educa- 
tion. 

The cry everywhere is for non-sectarian education, the 
archbishop declared. This is secular education, which is liber- 
alism. It is liberalism that is the fundamental error of the 
age. It does not recognize the Church of God, but only the 
individuality of man. This is the trouble everywhere between 
the church and the state. 

The argument advanced is this in effect: The State is 
only interested in the secular education of the children of the 
Commonwealth ; it can be of no concern to the State who im- 



ORIGIN — HATRED OF PUBLIC SCHOOL. 87 

parts this training, or in what place it is done, or what 
religious instruction in addition may be given, so- long as 
the secular requirements are fully met ; that, hence, it is im- 
material to the State whether the required secular instruction 
be imparted to the children in a public or in a parochial school ; 
and that for the secular training given in a parochial school 
the State should pay as willingly as for that given in the pub- 
lic school ; and that any such payment by the State to a paro- 
chial school can not be rightfully considered or construed as 
a payment of public money for a religious purpose. 

It requires no elaborate argument to show that such 
a course by the State would be one of public folly. It is suf- 
ficient to say that to grant compensation for secular instruc- 
tion to one sect would open the door for the granting of it to 
all sects. It would inaugurate an indescribable reign of graft. 
It would fill the land with jealousies, strifes and intrigues. 
It would mean the denominationalizing of the public schools. 
It would finally work the utter destruction of the magnificent 
public school system. 

To open the public treasury to the presentation and pay- 
ment of bills by religious denominations for the secular edu- 
cation of their children would mean ultimately its looting by 
Catholic ecclesiastical grafters. 

The members of the Catholic Hierarchy would, if they 
could, support their Church in America by " secular educa- 
tion ' graft. This book will probably disclose some other 
things which many of them would support by this graft. 

Abuse, of the Public School. 

This is a fair sample of the moderate Catholic ecclesi- 
astical abuse of the American public school. It is by a con- 
tributor to The New World of April 9, 1904, page 13: 

The state schools are the curse of filial piety and obedi- 
ence and the breeding places of anarchism and rebellion. 
They infect the mind of the child with contempt for the help- 
less parents, who have nothing to say. Character and manli- 



88 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

ness, obedience, reverence, family ties are weakened. Do we 
not see it in our young people ? They are the most irreverent, 
the most forward, the most disobedient on the face of the 
globe. Then what a conglomeration of girls and boys are gath- 
ered in public schools ! The children of thieves, murderers 
and criminals sit side by side with the children of the honest 
and upright; the Jew with the Christian, the infidel with the 
devout. The morally rotten mingle with those yet sound. 

Is it not true then that public schools are a perverse, il- 
legal and dangerous institution? Oh, what cursed negligence 
of otherwise sensible parents to allow such a commingling! 
They would not mix up a dozen of sound apples with a sin- 
gle tainted one, but they risk their innocent offspring with 
any number of the corrupt scum of humanity merely because 
the state offers to relieve them of the education of the children. 
Before another generation grows up, our public schools will 
be sinks of corruption from which streams of irreligious, un- 
manly, lecherous, impious and scoffing humanity will issue 
forth and poison our country. 

Let all religious persons in the land rise up in might and 
force the criminally negligent parents to take charge of the 
education of their children in schools managed by each denom- 
ination or each community. Let them help to sweep the in- 
iquitous school laws from the land and make the state mind 
the business for which God and we as citizens have set it up. 

I imagine that a few of my readers will wonder, before 
they finish reading this book, how much more stenchful the 
parochial school sinks of corruption would be if there were 
no public schools. 

I do not think that it harms a Christian to sit by a Jew. 
I think a man should be judged by his character and not by 
his creed, his color or his family. 

I can designate parochial schools in Chicago from which 
have come criminals of international reputation. Chicago has 
witnessed the hanging of more than one murderer who was 
in youth a parochial school boy. These things are equally 
true of other dioceses and archdioceses in America, 



origin — hatred of public school. 89 

Charged With Being Godless, 

It was formerly the general custom to open the public 
schools with the reading of some Scriptural selection and the 
saying of the Lord's prayer. This course was followed to 
teach the children about God and man's accountability to Him. 
It probably was pursued with the idea of supplementing the 
religious instruction of the home, the church, and the Sunday 
school. Catholic ecclesiastics saw a point of attack upon the 
public school in these religious exercises. So the country 
was startled by Catholic protests against teaching religion in 
the public schools. Some non-Catholics rallied to the support 
of the protesting Catholic ecclesiastics ; and out of the agitation 
came the virtual abandonment of religious exercises in the 
public schools. 

Having eliminated God from the public schools Catholic 
ecclesiastics then charged the public schools with being god- 
less and unfit for the education of the Catholic youth. The 
next movement was to erect parochial schools. The depleted 
pocket-books of the Catholic people are mute witnesses to the 
success of this last named ecclesiastical activity. 

The Hierarchy hopes that its constant reiteration of the 
charge of " godlessness " against the American public school 
will lead many pious non-Catholic parents to believe that the 
public schools are " vicious," and thereby hasten the destruction 
of the public school system. 

Catholic priests and prelates should not call the public 
schools godless, for the majority of the teachers in many of 
them are Catholics. They should not call them godless, for 
they were principally responsible for the elimination of re- 
ligious instruction from them. They should not call them 
godless, for the leaders in American history were produced 
by them. They should not call them godless, for many promi- 
nent American Catholics, clerical and lay, were educated in 
them. They should not call them godless, for the eloquent and 
fearless Bishop Spalding, of Peoria, whose name is a household 



90 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

word at home and abroad, has said that they are " not irre- 
ligious, not anti-religious, not godless." (See Chapter XII 
of this book for full quotation.) 

Charged With Causing Frivolity and Depravity. 

It is charged by the ecclesiastical enemies of the public 
school that the frivolity and depravity of the present day in 
America are almost entirely due to the " godless public school." 
In this connection I quote from an article by Rev. Charles 
Coppens, a Jesuit priest, published in The New World, the of- 
ficial organ of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Illinois, June 25, 
1904, page 6, entitled, " The White Slaves of America " : 

It will scarcely be questioned that the number of de- 
praved young men is greater than that of depraved young 
women. But the question which it concerns the whole country 
to studv is : What has filled the land with such multitudes of 
young people who live for pleasure without any serious thought 
of solemn duty; whose ideal in life is independence, personal 
enjoyment and general egotism? What education have those 
boys and girls received? They know how to read, write and 
cipher to some extent; they have a smattering of all that is 
taught in the common schools, and many have gone through 
high school or college. The vast majority of them are the 
ripe and legitimate fruit of the public school system; they are 
the logical outcome of the principles practically inculcated by 
it, namely, of eagerness to have money, love of amusement and 
show, independence, liberty of thought, neglect of religious 
observances. 

The frivolous and depraved members of the present gen- 
eration are not the legitimate fruit of the public school system. 
The love of money, which according to the Scriptures is " the 
root of all evil," does not have its origin and development in 
the public school. It has its genesis in the abundant wealth 
of the times and it is developed by a knowledge of the manifold 
objects which minister to comfort, culture and pleasure that 
money will procure. The progress of the world has made 
money a key which will open more doors in our day than it 



ORIGIN — HATRED OF PUBLIC SCHOOL. 91 

did in the times of our forefathers. The wealth of America 
has made America. Mr. Motley, in his Rise of the Dutch Re- 
public, says that " wealth, its vivifier became its destroyer.'* 
Wealth, the vivifier of America, may become the destroyer of 
America. The danger lurks in the inordinate desire to ac- 
cumulate it, in the unholy ways adopted to get it, and in the 
misuse or abuse of it. From one end of the land to the other 
there is a mania for money getting. American children do 
not become tainted with this mania for wealth by the instruction 
which is imparted to them in the public school, but by what 
they see, by what they hear, and by what they read. They are 
most largely influenced by the examples given them by the 
holders of wealth. So far as the public school is concerned it 
is on the side of morality and religion because its chief ideals 
are the distinguished Americans who rose under their aegis 
from lowliness to the highest position in their country. Wash- 
ington, the surveyor ; Lincoln, the rail-splitter ; Grant, the 
tanner; Garfield, the canal-boat boy; and McKinley, the clerk, 
are types of the concrete teaching imparted to children in the 
public schools. The public school does not deify the dollar — 
it deifies character. 

Now, what advantage has the parochial school over the 
public school in warning the children against the wrongful as- 
pects of money desiring, money getting and money using? 
The parochial school can teach that God looks with disfavor 
upon any inordinate desire to acquire wealth ; that He abomi- 
nates unholy methods to gain it ; and that He will hold its pos- 
sessor to a strict accountability for the use he makes of it. The 
public school cannot teach its pupils these religious truths. 
Does the parochial school in consequence have an advantage 
over the public school in respect to this line of instruction? 
Theoretically yes, but practically no, because the parochial 
school officers in America exhibit the most inordinate desire 
for wealth, adopt the most unholy methods to gain it, and make 
the most selfish use of it. I leave it to the good sense of think- 



92 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

ing Americans to decide whether the hypocrisy of the parochial 
school in this regard is not infinitely more harmful to children 
than the silence of the public school. 

The ecclesiastical enemies of the public school seem to 
take it for granted that frivolity and depravity are character- 
istics of the product of the American public school alone. 
That some of the graduates of the public schools should have 
these characteristics is not astounding. But what about the 
frivolity and depravity which characterize the product of the 
parochial school? From the statistics in my possession I as- 
sert that proportionately there is a very much smaller depraved 
and frivolous product from the public school than there is 
from the parochial school. I make this declaration with no 
desire to hurt the feelings of the Catholic people who have re- 
ceived a parochial school education, many of whom are true- 
hearted men and women. I marvel that so many of the pa- 
rochial school pupils succeed in rising above their alma mater 
and in developing fine characters in spite of the awful incubus 
of hypocrisy, incompetency and inadequacy under which they 
labored in the parochial school. 

Charged With Breeding Socialism. 

One of the attempts to discredit the public school is found 
in the charge by Catholic ecclesiastics that it is allied with 
socialism. The New World (the official organ of the Arch- 
diocese of Chicago) in its issue of June 25, 1904, page 8, has 
an article on this subject by " a distinguished writer," and 
from it I quote as follows : 

Socialism is sloth and laziness concocted into a gigantic 
system and involves the end of all decency and progress in the 
human race. Well, then, what are our public schools but a 
part of this system ? _. 

I leave it to socialistic writers to combat the above defini- 
tion of socialism. The reading I have done along this line, 
however, has not led me to any such conclusion. Whatever 
socialism may be, abstractly or concretely, one thing I know 



ORIGIN HATRED OF PUBLIC SCHOOL. 93 

and that is that the American public school is not a part of 
a gigantic system of concocted sloth and laziness. My ob- 
servation in America teaches me that socialists here, whatever 
they may be in other countries, are industrious, hard working, 
plain people, who love their homes and country and desire at 
heart, however mistaken they may be in theory, the welfare 
of all men. 

This socialistic charge is directed to the Catholic people 
rather than to the non-Catholics, for the Catholic clergy are 
bitter enemies of socialism, and they constantly preach against 
it from their pulpits. If the Catholic people can be made to 
believe that the public schools are hot-beds of socialism, then 
to that extent will the public schools be discredited in the eyes 
of the Catholic people as proper institutions to which to send 
Catholic youth. 

Charged With Causing Lynchings. 

From an editorial entitled, " Reaping the Whirlwind," in 
The Catholic Telegraph, of Cincinnati, Ohio, U. S. A., of Au- 
gust 1 8, 1904, page 4, I quote the following: 

Various reasons have been assigned for these frequent 
eruptions of the anarchistic spirit, but, in our opinion, the lynch- 
ing spirit is due to the irreligion, the exaggerated idea of per- 
sonal freedom and the repugnance to authority imbibed by the 
pupils in the godless schools of the country. " All authority 
comes from God," .and " Morality can not be taught without re- 
ligion," are principles which should dominate every system of 
education which may hope to produce law-abiding citizens, 
and until they do dominate our primary school education, we 
must not expect to be free from increasing outbursts of the 
lynching spirit. 

Parochial school graduates never participate in lynchings! 
Only graduates of the public school are guilty of that deviltry ! 

The time is surely near at hand for the Jesuits and other 
Catholic enemies of the public school to charge it with bring- 
ing about the rebellion of Lucifer, the fall of Adam, the uni- 



94 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

versal deluge and the diabolical immorality of Pope Alexander 
VI. 

Scheme to Deteriorate the Public School by the De- 
struction and Prevention of Normal Schools. 

I now advert to that part of the ecclesiastical plan to wreck 
the public schools which has to do with preventing the train- 
ing of teachers for the public schools. Teachers are now 
trained by normal schools. A specific clerical attack is being 
made upon the normal schools. It requires no extraordinary 
degree of intelligence to forecast the fate which awaits the 
public schools if they cannot secure an abundant supply of 
thoroughly trained teachers. If the normal schools are abol- 
ished, the public schools very likely will be forced to employ 
untrained teachers, and the inevitable result would be the de- 
struction of the efficiency of the public schools. 

But Catholic ecclesiastical enemies of the public schools 
hope not only to injure the public schools by depriving them 
of the trained teachers which they now get by the normal 
courses, but to crowd the teaching staff of the public schools 
full of the incompetent graduates of the parochial schools. 
With the normal schools out of the way, these ecclesiastics be- 
lieve that they can so manipulate matters that the parochial 
school graduates will easily become public school teachers — in 
fact, have the preference over other graduates and candidates 
for teaching positions. The success of this scheme would, of 
course, mean great graft for the ecclesiastics and awful de- 
terioration for the public school. 

A Catholic ecclesiastical attack is now being made upon 
the normal school in Chicago. A bill has been filed in the 
names of several Catholics to restrain the Chicago Board of 
Education from completing the normal school, alleging some 
class distinction as the ground of complaint. Preceding the 
filing of this bill the Archbishop of Chicago had much to say 
against the normal school, and I think there can be no doubt 
that His Grace is directly or indirectly responsible for the legal 



ORIGIN — HATRED OF PUBLIC SCHOOL. 95 

action. The Union League Club, composed of leading Chicago 
citizens, is championing the normal school. Apropos of the 
situation I quote the following about a speech delivered by 
Archbishop Quigley, December 19, 1903, at Masonic Temple, 
Chicago : 

Chicago American, Dec. 20, 1903. 

Declaring that Catholics simply desired their constitution- 
al right to educate their children as they saw fit, Archbishop 
Quigley attacked the erection of the new Chicago Normal 
School and the principles on which it was founded. He ex- 
plained that the State could support Catholic parochial schools 
without violating any constitutional provision or statute. 

I quote the following editorial on the action of the Union 
League Club: 

The Chicago Daily Journal, June 25, 1904. 
In Defense of the Normal School. 

The Union League club has tendered its assistance to the 
board of education in defense of the Chicago Normal school. 

The latter body is to be commended for having accepted 
the offer. The issue is one vitally affecting the welfare of the 
Chicago public schools. 

A suit has been instituted, in the name of three taxpayers, 
seeking to restrain the board of education from making further 
appropriations for the maintenance of this institution. 

The intention clearly is to kill the school. Its destruction 
is calculated to paralyze the efficiency of the teaching force. 
It means nothing less, and the public should be aroused to the 
true situation. 

The normal institution is the nursery and training school 
for Chicago teachers. To destroy it is to undermine the whole 
free school system. 

It has been shown by school statistics that the supply of 
teachers from outside schools is not only inadequate, but de- 
ficient in preparation. 

It also has been shown that careful, intelligent, expert 
training is necessary for the profession of teaching. How 
necessary, then, that the normal school should be as carefully 
provided for as are the public schools themselves! 



96 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. - 

An attack upon the normal school from any source should 
be resisted. The whole people of Chicago should applaud the 
Union League club for coming to the defense of this important 
educational institution. 

Friends of the American public school in other localities 
'should be on the alert to resist any Catholic ecclesiastical at- 
tacks upon normal schools. 

Attacks on Public School Veiled and Open. 

The attack of the Catholic Hierarchy upon the American 
public school is both veiled and open, depending upon the judg- 
ment of individual priests and prelates, that judgment being 
shaped by local conditions and personal considerations. 

Sometimes ecclesiastical disavowals of antagonism to the 
public schools are made, and the public informed that the 
Church does not seek to destroy them. As an illustration of 
such disavowals I quote the following from the Cathedral 
Calendar, published by the Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, 
September, 1902, p. 3 : 

Upon the opening of our parish schools education be- 
comes the topic of the hour. Catholics have little room for 
perplexity in the matter, as the Church has pointed out the 
school in which their children shall be trained. In so doing 
the Catholic church makes no war with the American system 
of public schools. That institution is a credit to a people striv- 
ing for knowledge. But life is more than knowledge, and 
character is more than instruction. 

All such disavowals of Catholic ecclesiastical antagonism 
to the American public school are rank hypocrisies. At the 
very time the foregoing quoted matter was penned for the pub- 
lic, Catholic people were told that the American public schools 
are but traps of the devil and sinks of corruption. 

Some Catholic ecclesiastics pretend to want " higher pub- 
lic schools, not the destruction of the school system," and sol- 
emnly declare that this is the Catholic aim ; but when their argu- 
ments are carefully analyzed and weighed it is seen that the 



ORIGIN HATRED OF PUBLIC SCHOOL. 97 

word " higher ' is used metaphorically or dynamically, and 
that their object is to blow the public schools out of existence. 

If Americans will observe closely they will see that emi- 
nent Catholic ecclesiastics are hypocritically posing as the 
champions of the best interests of the public school. 

In April, 1903, the Archbishop of Chicago was heralded 
over the land as fiercely assailing a certain educational bill then 
pending before the legislature of the State cf Illinois, alleging 
it to be " a blow at free education, and in effect an effort to 
place the public schools under the direction of the president 
of the Chicago University, who would be a dictator." When 
I reflected upon the Catholic ecclesiastical plan of attack upon 
the public schools, the wickedness of grafting parochial school 
officers, and the demand of His Grace that the State shall aid 
parochial schools, I wondered how long it will take the Amer- 
ican people to wake up. 

A Simulated Liberality. 

The Catholic ecclesiastical opponents of the public schools 
assume an air of liberality and make references to the belief 
of the majority of Americans in one God, Creator of all, and 
they declare that all civil laws which interfere in things super- 
natural or religious are invalid and unjust. But it should 
be borne in mind that these expressions have only an apparent 
and not a real liberality. When Catholic ecclesiastics thus 
talk about the belief of the majority in " one God " it is simply 
to ingratiate themselves in the favor of pious non-Catholics; 
and when they protest against civil laws which interfere in 
things supernatural or religious, they have in mind solely their 
own Church. The non-Catholic, who entertains for a moment 
the thought that they speak in a fraternal sense, is not wise. 
I say it with sadness that I am absolutely certain that these 
men, if they possessed the power, would not only destroy the 
public schools, but would trample upon the religious rights of 
every sect in America. Their references and appeals to " God," 
" the Church," and " human rights " must be interpreted first, 



9& THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

last and all the time by the darkness of bigotry and selfishness 
and not by the light of liberality and charity. 

On the Eve of an Aggressive Clericalism. 

We are now on the eve of a most*aggressive Catholic cler- 
ical movement. In a prominent article entitled, " Our Duty 
as Citizens," in The New World, the official organ of the 
Archdiocese of Chicago, (issue of April 16, 1904, p. 10), oc- 
cur these words : 

Catholics as a body have offered a passive resistance to 
the school laws all over the country The better and most re- 
ligious portion of them have desired a radical change in these 
lazvs, and they are getting ready to make the most strenuous 
efforts to effect such a change. 

I have no misgiving about the outcome. Catholic eccle- 
siastics cannot destroy the American public school ; they can 
not disintegrate it ; they cannot divert its funds — they can make 
the effort and achieve a certain amount of apparent success, 
but the result of their effort will be the arraying of the seventy 
millions of non-Catholic American citizens against the less 
than twelve millions of Catholics in America and the end of 
the struggle will witness not merely the protection of the 
American public school but the annihilation of the Catholic 
parochial school. 

Recent French history, telling of the suppression of the 
teaching orders, should be emphasis enough on what is pos- 
sible and probable in America. 

The American people are slow to wrath, but when their 
wrath is once kindled it burns like a consuming fire. — Mes- 
sages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. X., p. 420. 

The parochial school is a gold mine for Catholic ecclesias- 
tical grafters. It is a curse to the Church. It is a menace to 
the Nation. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE PAROCHIAL 

SCHOOL SYSTEM. 



The public school system in America has Boards of Educa- 
tion. The public schools of the City of Chicago, 111., for exam- 
ple, are controlled by a Board of Education. The public school 
superintendents, principals, assistant principals and teachers 
are subject to it. It is the supreme head of the public school 
system in Chicago. It regulates the salaries of the public 
school officers and teachers ; it contracts for the securing of 
new building sites, and it lets the contracts for the erection of 
new school buildings. It designates the studies which the pub- 
lic school children shall pursue. Other cities and localities in 
America have similar boards, vested with like powers. The 
Nation has no supreme Board of Education to which are ame- 
nable all the Boards of Education in the respective States. 

The parochial school system has no Boards of Education 
in America such as I have described as being in control of the 
public schools. It has, however, in effect, a Board of Educa- 
tion, although it does not designate it by this name, to which 
the parochial schools are subject. The Board of Education of 
the Catholic Parochial School System is none other than the 
Vatican, meaning thereby the Pope and the Propaganda, and 
their ecclesiastical advisers. These high Church dignitaries, 
comprising the Pontiff, Cardinals, and others, constitute what 
may with propriety be called, in view of their relation to the 
parochial school, the Board of Education of the Catholic Pa- 
rochial School System. 
LefC. 



IOO THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

In view of the fact that a division of the public school 
money in America is demanded by the Catholic hierarchy, and 
in view of the fact that the Catholic hierarchy is ceaseless in its 
villification of the American public school, and in view of the 
fact that the Catholic hierarchy is determined to annihilate the 
American public school system, and in view of the fact that 
these ecclesiastical attitudes have never been rebuked by the 
Vatican but on the contrary indirectly if not directly approved, 
I deem it very important to this discussion to present certain 
information about the Board of Education of the Parochial 
School System that the American people may have at hand 
reliable data to help them in deciding whether they should favor 
or oppose the attitudes of the Catholic hierarchy towards the 
American public school. Some of these data consist of Church 
history which I trust will so enlighten the Catholic people that 
they may be led to form rational views as to the peccability 
of priests, prelates, Cardinals and Pontiffs. 

Vatican History. 

The Board of Education of the Catholic Parochial School 
System has a long history and much of it is shocking. Its 
unsavory features are not familiar to the plain Catholic people. 

I shall quote almost entirely from the works of Dr. John 
Alzog and Dr. Ludwig Pastor, the renowned historians of the 
Catholic Church. 

Dr. Alzog is the author of the Manual of Universal 
Church History, and the American translation bears the fol- 
lowing imprimatur : 

Cincinnati, August 15, 1874. 

With no ordinary satisfaction, we attach our Imprimatur 
to this most necessary Manual of Ecclesiastical History of the 
Rev. Dr. Alzog. The work, as it comes from the hands of 
the Rev. President and a Rev. Professor of our Seminary, may 
be considered an improvement on the original. It is better 
adapted to our needs, and from the favor with which the pros- 
pectus has been received by our Most Reverend Prelates and 
Right Reverend Prelates and Professors of Theology, we have 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. IOI 

no doubt of its being regarded as a valuable acquisition to ec- 
clesiastical science. 

j" J. B. Purcell, Archbishop of Cincinnati. 

Dr. Pastor's work is widely known, and as it is drawn 
from the secret archives of the Vatican it is regarded as par- 
ticularly valuable. I quote from The Nezv World of Nov. 7, 
1903, page 13: 

Dr. Pastor, author of the " Lives of the Popes," had a long 
audience with the Holy Father on Saturday, and presented to 
His Holiness a copy of the fourth edition of the first volume 
of the work. The Pope expressed his hearty appreciation of 
the action of Leo XIII in throwing open the Vatican archives, 
and said : " Non e da temere la verita " — the truth is not to be 
feared. He gave Dr. Pastor permission to dedicate to him 
the fourth edition of the second volume of the " History of the 
Popes," and said he would regard the dedication as a high hon- 
or for himself. 

Dr. Alzog and Dr. Pastor devote hundreds of pages to 
the dark side of the Vatican history. They say that sin has 
infected all ranks of the clergy at various times during the ex- 
istence of the Church ; that certain Popes, while occupying 
the Pontifical throne, were guilty of immorality — some of them 
officiated at the weddings of their own children and performed 
the ceremonies in the Vatican ; that many Cardinals were lewd 
in life ; that the lower clergy were corrupt ; that grafting 
abounded ; that the ruling classes, demoralized by clerical ras- 
cality, plunged into excesses ; that the faith was preserved by 
the honest, abused, deceived, patient, plain Catholic people; 
that when the priesthood had the most of wealth and power 
its sins were greatest; and that money has been wrung from 
the people to feed the extravagance of priests, prelates, Cardi- 
nals and Pontiffs. 

I quote a few of the statements of Dr. Alzog and Dr. 
Pastor. 

GENERAL IMMORALITY. 

Under this heading will be found a few quotations which 
are general in their nature. 



102 the parochial school. 

Unchastity and Simony. 

There were eighty councils held in France during the 
eleventh century, and of these there was not a single one in 
which a protest of the fathers was not directed against the 
lawlessness and brigandage of the laity and the unchastity and 
simony of the clergy. — Dr. Alzogs Manual of Universal 
Church History, Vol. II. , p. 368. 

Papal and Clerical Immorality. 

Cupidity, manifesting itself in the prevalence of simony 
and the accumulation of benefices, selfishness, pride and os- 
tentatious luxury were but too common among ecclesiastics. 
The extent of the corruption is seen in the complaints of con- 
temporary writers, and proved by well authenticated facts. 
Unhappily, the infection spread even to the Holy See. The 
corruption begins with Paul II., it increases under Sixtus IV. 
and Innocent VIII., and comes to a head in the desecration 
of the chair of St. Peter, by the immoral life of Alexander VI. 
The depravity of these times struck even such outside observers 
as the knight Arnold von Harff, with horror. — Dr. Pastor's 
History of the Popes, Vol. V ., pp. 169, 170. 

There can be no doubt that . . . among the clergy 
(during the Renaissance) there was a great deal of immorality. 
— Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. V ., p. 10. 

Dr. Pastor refers to the mandate of the Duke of Milan 
to the Podesta of Pavia, dated Sept. 27, 1470, containing com- 
plaints of the priests who went about at night in secular attire. 
Also, much scandal was given by the clergy in Sicily. Also to 
Ordinance of the Viceroy, dated Palermo, Oct. 26, 1500, on 
priests who kept concubines. All in Vol. V., p. 172, footnotes, 
- — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes. 

Prostitution, Sodomy and Murders in Churches. 

Already, in the 14th century, in the towns in Italy, the 
number of unfortunate women leading a life of shame had been 
very great. . . . On the side of the Church great efforts 
were made to stem the tide of evil. . . Special missions 
were sometimes given for the conversion of these women. 
. . Some were converted. . . . But in the main things 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 103 

remained much as they were in Rome, which was not sur- 
prising, considering the bad example set by so many of the 
clergy. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. V ., pp. 128, 

I3°> I 3 I - 

But this (prostitution) was not the worst of the maladies 
which the false renaissance had brought upon Italy. . . . 
There is unmistakable evidence of the revival of the horrible 
national vice of the Greeks. ... It made its way into the 
lower ranks also. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. V ., 
pp. 131, 133. 

The frequency of murders in churches is another mark 
of the blunting of the moral sense. — Dr. Pastor's History of 
the Popes, Vol. V., p. 134. 

Gross Liberties by Artists. 

The abuse of painting friends and acquaintances of the 
artist as saints, grew apace during the latter half of the 15th 
century. Donatello, in choosing a man like Poggio for a mod- 
el of a prophet, was defying all sense of propriety. The same 
was in a sense true of Benozzo Gozzoli's frescoes in the Campo 
Santo at Pisa, and in S. Gimignano, and of those painted by 
Ghirlandjo in Sta. Maria Novella in Florence. Many as are 
the beauties of Ghirlandjo's frescoes in the choir of Sta. Maria 
Novella, we cannot but regard the introduction of twenty-one 
portraits of members of the donors' families as a profanation 
of sacred history. ^ The dissolute Carmelite, Fra Pilippo Lippi, 
did even worse, for his Madonnas reproduce again and again 
the features of Lucrezia Buti, his mistress. — Dr. Pastor's 
History of the Popes, Vol. V., pp. 196, 197. 

Many of my readers may not catch the full significance 
of these words. It is simply this : Artists who were en- 
gaged to paint sacred pictures, painted the likenesses of their 
mistresses to represent the holy women, and Lippi even chose 
his mistress to represent the Mother of God. 

Immoral Monks and Nuns. 

The ecclesiastical troubles of preceding years had paved 
the way for grievous abuses in the Tyrol, as well as in most 
parts of Germany, and fearful immorality prevailed amongst 
clergy and laity. . . Cardinal Cusa rose to the occasion. He 



104 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

was resolved at any cost to carry out the reform in his Dio- 
cese; his special attention was directed to the Religious Or- 
ders, the scandal of whose moral corruption was aggravated 
by their profession of a life of poverty and self-abnegation. 
The extent of the evil may be estimated by the violent op- 
position which the regulations of the new Bishop encountered. 
The Poor Clares of Brixen in particular were distinguished by 
the obstinacy of their resistance, and even the intervention 
of the Holy See was ineffectual. The nuns treated the Papal 
Brief with as little respect as the Interdict and Excommuni- 
cation pronounced by the Cardinal. — Dr. Pastor's History of 
the Popes, Vol III., pp. 178, 179. 

Cardinal Cusa's most serious contest was with the nuns 
of the Bendictine Convent of Sonnenburg, in the Pusterthal, 
where a secular spirit had made terrible inroads. . . They 
turned to Duke Sigismund for protection. This dissolute 
prince was a strange champion for a convent of nuns, but he 
was equal to the occasion. 

A foot note here says : In 1490 the deputies of the States 
represented to Sigismund that " the gracious Lord had cer- 
tainly more than forty sons and daughters who were illegit- 
imate." . . — Archiv fur Oesterreich. Gesch., XLL, 570. 
Ibid. 302 seq. shows Sigismund to have ultimately become the 
sport of depraved women. 

In 1455 tne sentence of greater excommunication was 
pronounced on the obstinate inmates of the convent, who 
thereupon appealed to the Pope. Calixtus III. disapproved of 
the Cardinal's (Cusa's) severity, and recommended, for the 
sake of avoiding scandal, that the matter should be amicably 
adjusted. Cusa, however, would yield nothing, and the nuns 
persevered in their resistance, relying on the protection of the 
Duke (Sigismund). — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. 
III., pp. 180, 181. 

Many of the monasteries were in a most deplorable con- 
dition. The three essential vows of poverty, chastity and 
obedience, were in some convents almost entirely disregarded. 
. . The discipline of many convents of nuns was equally lax. 
—Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. V., pp. 172, 173. 

Sixtus IV. found it necessary to direct a Bull against some 
Carmelites in Bologna who had maintained that there was no 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 105 

harm in asking for things from demons. — Dr. Pastor's History 
of the Popes, Vol. V., p. 152. 

The Church Between Ninth and Tenth Centuries. 

The Church, notably in Italy and in some portions of the 
former Frankish Empire, had fallen from the high position 
to which she had been raised by Charlemagne to as low a 
depth as she could well reach. . . In the midst of the turmoil 
and conflict of parties, it was but natural that the clergy 
should be distinguished by ignorance rather than learning; 
and, this being the case, it was equally natural that the bulk of 
the people should grow up without the necessary religious in- 
struction and information. Such was in matter of fact the 
condition of things. People grew worldly and sensual ; religion 
was, in many instances, little better than a gross and degrad- 
ing superstition ; the veneration paid to the saints was but a 
few removes from Paganism ; the reverence given to images 
was excessively exaggerated. — Dr. Alzog's Manual of Uni- 
versal Church History, Vol. II., p. 391. 

The efforts of Benedict XII., Innocent VI., and Urban 
V. were ineffectual to counteract the influence of these wide- 
spread disorders. Relaxation and dissoluteness infected every 
member of the Church, from the highest to the lowest ; stem 
and branch languished, barren and dishonored. — Dr. Alzog's 
Manual of Universal Church History, Vol. II., p. 845. 

Men were not wanting to whom these shameful courses 
became an occasion for altogether rejecting the institution Of 
the Papacy. A Canon of Bamberg, Dr. Theodorich Morung, 
who had gone to Rome on some affairs of the Diocese in the 
spring of 1485, on his return home expressed himself in this 
sense. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. V ., p. 3/0. 

Morals of the Clergy, A. D. 1303-15 17. 

The gradual decline of papal influence and the evil ex- 
ample of the lives of some of the Popes reacted with terrible 
effect upon the morals of the bishops. As many of these had 
secured their sees by the employment of questionable means, 
it need excite no surprise if, having once entered upon the 
duties of their office, they led lives the reverse of exemplary, 
and did absolutely nothing to elevate the standard of morality 
among the faithful. . . It must be admitted that morality, 



106 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

especially among the lower clergy and in the monasteries, was 
dissolute indeed in the fifteenth century. . . Concubinage was 
the crying vice among the clergy of many dioceses. . . Such 
scandals will occur in the very best and purest ages. . . Neither 
can the action of synods be taken as conclusive against the 
morals of any age. . . But after allowance has been made for 
every such modifying circumstance, the fact that during this 
age the morality of the clergy was deplorable, is still before 
us in all its hideous deformity. This dissoluteness of morals 
rapidly infected the laity, who learned from those whose lives 
should have been examples of manly honesty and priestly 
honor to put a light estimate on the virtue of purity. The 
leading minds of the Councils were divided as to what means 
to employ for removing so deep a stain from the priestly char- 
acter. Some professed to believe that the marriage of the 
clergy was the only adequate remedy for the evil ; but others . . 
maintained that the well-being of the Church depended upon 
the rule of celibacy, the observance of which would be ren- 
dered morally certain if based upon a thoroughly clerical edu- 
cation, an education such as is consonant with a divine call- 
ing to the priesthood. Decrees were enacted punishing with 
fines and deposition those of the clergy who should refuse to 
leave off living in concubinage. 

As these disorders were very generally believed to be a 
consequence of the great wealth of the clergy, many asserted 
that the removal of so potent an occasion of sin, was the first 
step towards either forming a new clergy, with more exalted 
principles of priestly purity and honor, or raising up those of 
the existing clergy from the depth of degradation to which 
their avarice and their immorality had precipitated them, and 
establishing them once more in the esteem and affections of a 
laity who now regarded them with aversion and contempt. 
— Dr. Alzog's Manual of Universal Church History, Vol. II. , 
pp.. 928-931. 

Graft at the Papal Court. 

So wide an extension and so active an exercise of the 
power and authority of the Holy See called for a large and 
efficient staff of officials about the immediate person of the 
Pope, and the continual presence of papal legates in distant 
countries. For the decisions in all legal matters, the Roman 
court was the highest tribunal of appeal, and for these legal 
services heavy fees were exacted. The legates sent into the 



BOARD -OF EDUCATION. 107 

various countries to look after ecclesiastical affairs, as a rule, 
made an honest and conscientious use of the vast authority 
with which they were invested ; but the abuses which they 
not un frequently permitted themselves excited the most bitter 
complaints even against the Popes, who, to their honor be it 
said, always meant well, but were not always faithfully served. 
— Dr. Abog's Manual of Universal Church History, Vol. II., 
PP- 6 33, 634. 

Popes Influenced by Astrology. 

Astrology was so bound up with Italian life that many 
even of the Popes, Sixtus IV., Julius II., Leo X., and still 
later Paul III., were influenced by the notions of their time. 
It is uncertain whether or not Paul II. tolerated Astrology. 
— Dr. Pastor s History of the Popes, Vol. V ., p. 149. 

Astrology in those days evidently had superseded the Holy 
Ghost. 

The Plain Catholic People Saved the Church. 

The religious dispositions of the people held many things 
together which threatened to fall to pieces, and explain much 
that would otherwise be difficult of solution ; it was often very 
touchingly manifested. When Gregory XL, the last of the 
Avignon Popes, laid an interdict upon Florence, crowds of 
citizens used to assemble in the evening before the images of 
the Madonna, at the corners of the streets, and endeavor by 
their prayers and. hymns to make up for the cessation of pub- 
lic worship. Vespasiano da Bisticci, in his life of (Pope) 
Eugenius IV., relates that when the Pope, during his sojourn 
in Florence, blessed the people from a balcony erected in 
front of the church of Sta. Maria Novella, the whole of the 
wide square and the adjoining streets resounded with sighs and 
prayers ; it seemed as if our Lord Himself, rather than His 
Vicar, was speaking. In 1450, when Nicholas V. celebrated 
the restoration of peace to the Church by the publication of a 
Jubilee, a general migration to the Eternal City took place ; 
eye-witnesses compared the bands of pilgrims to the flight of 
starlings, or the march of myriads of ants. In the year 1483 
the Siennese consecrated their city to the Mother of God, and 
in 1495, at the instigation of Savonarola, the Florentines pro- 
claimed Christ their King. . . Side by side with these evi- 



108 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. . 

deuces of religious feeling in the Italian people, the age of the 
Renaissance certainly exhibits alarming tokens of moral de- 
cay ; sensuality and license reigned, especially among the higher 
classes. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. L, pp. 34, 35. 

CORRUPTION IN THE COLLEGE OF CARDINALS. 

Graft, Immorality, Cruelty, Worldliness, Etc. 

The lives of many cardinals, bishops, and prelates, are 
a sad spectacle at a time when one man could hold any num- 
ber of benefices, and squander unabashed the revenues derived 
from them in a career of luxury and vice. The serious cor- 
ruption in the College of Cardinals began under Sixtus IV., 
and during the reign of Innocent VIII. it increased to such 
an extent that it became possible by bribery to procure the 
election of such a successor as Alexander VI. A glance at 
the lives of Ippolito d'Este, Francesco Lloris, Caesar Borgia, 
and others, is enough to show the character of the members ad- 
mitted under this Pope into the Senate of the Church. It was 
not till the reign of Julius II. that a partial improvement took 
place, and even he bestowed the purple on such worthless per- 
sons as Sigismondo Gonzaga and Francesco Alidosi. Strict 
ecclesiastical discipline was not re-established in the College 
of Cardinals till the middle of the 16th century. — Dr. Pas- 
tor's History of the Popes, Vol. V., pp. 170, 171. 

Of Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, we are told that he hired 
assassins to put out the eyes of his natural brother Julius, be- 
cause one of his mistresses had remarked that they were beau- 
tiful. 

He was made a cardinal at the age of fifteen years. — Dr. 
Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. V., p. 171, foot-note, and 
p. 417. 

INCIDENTS IN THE LIVES OF POPES. 

John XL, A. D. 931-936. 

Made Pope by His Infamous Mother. 

Dr. Alzog says that his mother was Marozia, one of the 
infamous daughters of the infamous courtesan, Theodora the 
elder. While she was in the possession of the castle of St. 
Angelo, she had Pope John X. cast into prison and put to 
death. Pope John XL was her son by her first husband, and 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. IOO, 

he " was throughout his whole reign, subject to the baneful 
influence of either his mother or brother." — Dr. Alzog's Man- 
ual of Universal Church History, Vol. II., pp. 293, 295, 296. 

John XII., A. D. 955-964. 
A Profligate. Indicted for Incest, etc. 

In the year 956, Octavian, a youth only eighteen years 
of age, the son of Alberic, Duke of Tuscany, the husband of 
Marozia, succeeded, through the influence of his faction, in 
having himself raised to the papal throne. The custom, now 
common with popes, of changing their baptismal name upon 
their accession, into one more ecclesiastical in form, was first 
introduced by John XII. His pontificate lasted till the year 
964. Though young in years, this unworthy occupant of the 
papal chair was old in profligacy, and brought disgrace upon 
his exalted office by his many vices and shameful excesses. . . 
When (King), Otho was informed, upon the authority of the 
leading citizens of Rome, that John XII. was stained with 
the guilt of immorality, simony, and other vices equally hein- 
ous, he dismissed the charges with the remark : " He is still 
young, and may, with the example of good men before him, 
and under the influence of their counsel, grow better as he 
grows older." (Otho, while at Pavia, learned of treacherous 
conduct on the part of Pope John XII. towards him and) he 
set out for Rome, where he arrived November 2, A. D. 962 ; 
but John and (Prince) Adelbert, not daring to await his com- 
ing, had already fled, taking with them the treasure of St. 
Peter's Church. The Romans took the oath of fealty to Otho. 
. . He (Otho) convoked (A. D. 963) a synod to meet in St. 
Peter's Church, at which forty bishops and sixteen cardinals 
were present, for the purpose of deposing the Pope. . . This 
so-called Synod indicted the Pope on the charges of incest, 
perjury, blasphemy, murder, and others equally enormous. 

This 'synod deposed Pope John XII., and elected Leo, a 
layman, who was called Pope Leo VIII., to the pontificate. 
Later, John XII. returned to Rome, and drove out the anti- 
pope, assembled a synod, declared the acts of the synod called 
by Otho null and of no effect, deposed and excommunicated 
Leo, and pronounced his ordination invalid. 

No sooner had John gained this triumph over his enemies 
than he again went back to his former licentious habits and 



110 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

unseemly excesses. But though God may tolerate such things 
for a time, His vengeance usually overtakes one in the end. 
John was suddenly stricken down with cerebral apoplexy, and 
died, at the end of eight days, without being able to receive 
the Holy Viaticum. — Dr. Alzog's Manual of Universal Church 
History, Vol. II., pp. 29 j ; 298, 303, 304, 305. 

Benedict IX., 1033-1044. 

A Profligate. Gets Married. 

Count Alberic, the brother of Benedict VIII. and John 
XIX., succeeded, by means of unbounded bribery, in having 
his son, Theophylactus, a young man of only eighteen (12?), 
but far more proficient in vice than became one of his age, 
elected Pope, under the name of Benedict IX. For eleven 
years did this young profligate disgrace the chair of St. Peter. 
One of his successors (Pope Victor III.), in speaking of him, 
said, " that it was only with feelings of horror he could bring 
himself to relate how disgraceful, outrageous, and execrable 
was the conduct of this man after he had taken priest's orders." 
The Romans put up with his misconduct and vices for a time ; 
but, seeing that he grew worse instead of better, from day to 
day, they finally lost all patience with him, and drove him 
from the city. The Emperor Conrad . . . conducted him 
back to Rome and reinstated him in his office ; but, on the 
death of the former (Conrad), Benedict was again forced 
to leave the city; and his enemies, by making liberal distribu- 
tions of money among the people, reconciled public opinion 
to the election of an antipope in the person of John, Bishop 
of Sabina, who took the name of Sylvester III. After an ab- 
sence of a few months, Benedict was brought back by the 
members of the powerful family to which he belonged ; but he 
had scarcely been fairly seated on his throne when he gave 
fresh offense to the people by proposing a marriage between 
himself and his cousin. The father of the young lady refused 
to give his consent to the proposed union, unless Benedict 
would first resign the papacy, and the archpriest John, a 
man of piety and rectitude of life, fearing the consequences 
so great a scandal would bring upon the Church, also offered 
him a great sum of money if he would withdraw to private 
life. Benedict, who longed for privacy, that he might the more 
fully indulge his passions, listened with pleasure to these sug- 
gestions, and finally consented to resign and retire to live as a 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. Ill 

private citizen, in one of the castles belonging to his family. 
It was the honest purpose of the archpriest John to raise the 
Holy See from the degradation to which it had been sunk by the 
tyranny and the bribery of the nobles ; but, at the same time, 
conscious that the only way to defeat them was to outbid them 
in the purchase of the venal populace, he distributed money 
lavishly, but judiciously, and thus secured his own election. 
He took the name of Gregory VI. But the love of power and 
notoriety soon grew upon Benedict. He repented of the step 
he had taken, and, coming forth from the privacy which had 
now lost its fascination, and supported by his powerful rela- 
tives, he again put forth his claims to the papacy. There 
were now three persons (Benedict IX., Sylvester III. and 
Gregory VI.) claiming the same dignity. This condition of 
affairs brought grief to the hearts of the well disposed of all 
parties, and they coming together, invited Henry III. of Ger- 
many . . to put an end to the confusion and restore order. . . 
He caused a synod to be convened . . at Sutri, at which Syl- 
vester III. was condemned and ordered to retire to cloister, 
and there pass the remainder of his days. Benedict's 
claims, owing to his resignation, were not taken into account, 
and Gregory came forward, and, on his own motion, declared 
that though he had had the best intentions in aiming at the pap- 
acy, there could be no question that his election had been se- 
cured " by disgraceful bribery and accompanied by simoniacal 
heresy, and that, in consequence, he should of right be deprived 
of the papal throne, and did hereby resign it." Accompanied 
by his disciple, Hildebrand, he afterward retired to the mon- 
astery of Clugny. . . The Romans had sworn that they would 
not choose another Pope during the lifetime of Gregory, and 
they therefore begged Henry III., as he with his successors 
enjoyed the title of Patrician of Rome, to make choice of one. 
Henry selected for the office Suidger, Bishop of Bamberg, who 
took the name of Clement II. — Dr. Alzog's Manual of Uni- 
versal Church History, Vol. II., pp. 316-319. 

John XXII., 1316-1334. 

A Multimillionaire. 

John died (December 4, 1334), leaving a well-filled ex- 
chequer whose wealth, amounting to eighteen millions of gold 
florins and seven millions in jewels, was derived chiefly from 



112 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

annats, or the first year's revenue of a vacant bishopric ; from 
expectancies, or moneys paid by clerics to the Pope for let- 
ters securing them the first benefices that should fall vacant; 
and from the tithe, or a levy amounting to the tenth of its 
value on all property. It was said that the Pope was accumu- 
lating this wealth to undertake a new Crusade, and to put 
him in a position to restore the pontifical residence to Rome. 
— Dr. Alzog's Manual of Universal Church -History, Vol. II. , 

P. 835- 

Urban V., 1362- 1370. 

Indescribable Immorality. 

Urban V. was one of the best of Popes. . . The period 
was in many ways a most melancholy one. The prevailing 
immorality exceeded anything that had been witnessed since 
the tenth century. . . Habits of life changed rapidly, and be- 
came more luxurious and pleasure seeking. The clergy of 
all degrees, with some honorable exceptions, went with the 
current. . . Gold became the ruling power everywhere. . . 
The officials of the Papal Court omitted no means of enrich- 
ing themselves. No audience was to be obtained, no business 
transacted without money, and even permission to receive 
Holy Orders had to be purchased by presents. The same 
evils, on a smaller scale, prevailed in most of the episcopal 
palaces. The promotion of unworthy and incompetent men, 
and the complete neglect of the obligation of residence, were 
the results of this system. The synods, indeed, often urged 
this obligation, but the example of those in high places counter- 
acted their efforts. The consequent want of supervision is 
in itself enough to explain the decay of discipline in the mat- 
ter of the celibacy of the clergy, though the unbridled im- 
morality, which kept pace with the increasing luxury of the 
age, had here also led many astray. Urban V. . . clearly saw 
that the reformation of the clergy was the first thing to be 
attended to, and took vigorous measures . . against immoral 
and simoniacal ecclesiastics and idle monks. — Dr. Pastor's 
History of the Popes, Vol. I., pp. 97-98. 

Gregory XL, 1370-1378. 

A Revolt. St. Catherine Denounces Papal Court. 

(The States of the Church revolted.) Consternation 
reigned in Avignon; Gregory XL, timid by nature, 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 113 

was deeply shocked and alarmed by the evil tidings 
from Italy. . . He endeavored to make terms with his op- 
ponents but in vain. . . In face of the reckless proceedings of 
his enemies, Gregory XL believed the time had come when 
even a pacific Pontiff must seriously think of war. A sen- 
tence accordingly went forth, which, as time proved, was 
terrible in its effects and in many respects doubtless too severe. 
The citizens of Florence were excommunicated, an interdict 
was laid upon the city ; Florence, with its inhabitants and 
possessions, was declared to be outlawed. Gregory XL came 
to the unfortunate decision of opposing force by force, and 
sending the wild Breton mercenaries, who were then at Avig- 
non with their captain, Jean de Maletroit, to Italy, under the 
command of the fierce Cardinal Legate, Robert of Geneva. 
War was declared between the last French Head of the Church 
and the Republic of Florence. — Dr. Pastors History of the 
Popes, Vol. L, pp. 102, 103. 

(St. Catherine) urged him by word of mouth, as she had 
already done in her letters, to undertake the reformation of 
the clergy. The worldly-minded Cardinals were amazed at 
the plain speaking of this nun. She told the Pope of his fail- 
ings, especially of his inordinate regard for his relations. . . 
She loudly complained that at the Papal Court, which ought 
to have been a Paradise of virtue, her nostrils were assailed 
by the odours of hell. It is greatly to the honor of Gregory 
that St. Catherine could venture to speak thus plainly, and 
equally to her honor that she did so speak. 

Many would have been glad to crush her. — Dr. Pastor's 
History of the Popes, Vol. I., pp. ioj, 108. 

A Two-Headed Papacy. 

At a number of times there were two and even three Popes 
at the same time. 

I now give a brief account of the two-headed papacy 
which started during the pontificate of Urban VI. My readers 
will please note that the " corruption of the clergy was the root 
of all the misery." - 

The election of Urban VI. had taken place under cir- 
cumstances so peculiar that it was easy to call it in question. 
It was impossible for those not on the spot to investigate it in 



114 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

all its details, and the fact that all who had taken part in it 
subsequently renounced their allegiance, was well calculated 
to inspire doubt and perplexity. It is extremely difficult . . to 
estimate the difficulties of contemporaries who sought to know 
which of the two Popes had a right to their obedience. The 
extreme confusion is evidenced by the fact that canonized 
Saints are found among the adherents of each of the rivals. . . 
The writings of the period give more or less evidence of the 
conflicting opinions which prevailed; and upright men after- 
wards confessed that they had been unable to find out which 
was the true Pope. 

Peter Suchenwirt, in a poem written at this period, de- 
scribed the distress, which the growing anarchy within the 
Church was causing in men's minds, and earnestly beseeches 
God to end it. " There are two Popes " he says, " which is the 
right one?" (This is Dr. Pastor's recital of the poem) : 

" In Rome itself we have a Pope, 

In Avignon another ; 

And each one claims to be alone 

The true and lawful ruler. 

The world is troubled and perplext, 

'Twere better we had none 

Than two to rule o'er Christendom, 

Where God would have but one. 

He chose St. Peter, who his fault 

With bitter tears bewail'd, 

As you may read the story told 

Upon the sacred page. 

Christ gave St. Peter pow'r to bind, 

And also pow'r to loose; 

Now men are binding here and there, 

Lord, loose our bonds we pray." 

We can scarcely form an idea of the deplorable condition 
to which Europe was reduced by the schism. . . This schism 
affected the whole of Christendom, and called the very ex- 
istence of the Church in question. The discord touching its 
Head necessarily permeated the whole body of the Church; 
in many Dioceses two Bishops were in arms for the possession 
of the Episcopal throne, two Abbots in conflict for an Abbey. 
The consequent confusion was indescribable. We cannot won- 
der that the Christian religion became the derision of Jews 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 115 

and Mahometans. . . All evils which had crept into ecclesias- 
tical life were infinitely increased. Respect for the Holy See 
was also greatly impaired. . . The schism allowed each Prince 
to choose which Pope he would acknowledge. In the eyes 
of the people the simple fact of a double papacy must have 
shaken the authority of the Holy See to its very foundations. 
It may truly be said that these fifty years of schism prepared 
the way for the great Apostacy of the sixteenth century. 

The Cardinals of the rival Popes were at open variance . . 
in many cases public worship was altogether discontinued. 

The most clear sighted contemporary writers point to the 
corruption of the clergy, to their inordinate desire for money 
and possessions — in short, to their selfishness — as the root of 
all the misery. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. L, 
pp. 138-142, 143, 146. 

It certainly is passing strange that notwithstanding the 
fact that ' ' upright men ' : of that sad time were " unable to 
find out which was the true Pope," yet Dr. Pastor, living five 
hundred years later, assisted by five Cardinals, has no diffi- 
culty at all to tell which was the true Pontiff. Surely it is a 
matter for deep regret that those " upright men " died five 
centuries before the lifetime of Dr. Pastor and his eminent 
supervisors! (See Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. L, 
p. 120). 

Together with the revolt against the Church, a social revo- 
lution was openly advocated. A chronicler writing at Mayence 
in the year 1401, declares that the cry "Death to the Priests!" 
which had long been whispered in secret, was now the watch- 
word of the day. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. I., 
p. 120. 

Pius II., 1458-1464. 

The Father of Several Children. A Writer of Erotic 

Literature. 

(He was Aeneas Sylvius of the noble house of Piccolo- 
mini, and was) unable to enter upon his studies until his 
eighteenth year — gifted with a fine mind — Secretary under 
Capranica, Bishop of Fermo, . . whom he accompanied to 
the Council of Basle — promoted to the office of Recorder of the 



Il6 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Council. He was also frequently sent on important embassies, 
during some of which he was not over discreet in his con- 
duct. He fell in with an English-woman at Strasburg, by 
whom he had a son, a fact which he quietly communicated to 
his father without any attempt at exculpation other than a 
reference to the examples of David and Solomon. . . he was 
created Cardinal by Calixtus III. . . He was called to fill the 
chair of Peter and took the name of Pius II. — Dr. Alzog's. 
Manual of Universal Church History, Vol. II., pp. 898-900. 

Pope Pius II. was a writer of erotic literature. Dr. Pas- 
tor says : 

Beccadelli's disgraceful work did not, unfortunately, 
stand alone, for Poggio, Filer Filelfo and Aeneas Sylvius 
Piccolomini (Pope Pius II.) have much to answer for in the 
way of highly seasoned anecdotes and adventures. — Dr. Pas- 
tor's History of the Popes, Vol. I., p. 24. 

Dr. Pastor says of the early life of this Pope: 

He was employed by the Council as Scriptor, Abbreviator, 
and Chief Abbreviator ; was a member of the commission of 
dogma, and took part in several embassies. . . His happiest 
hours were spent in Basle, in a little circle of friends, like him- 
self, of studious tastes and of lax morality. . . We have posi- 
tive proof that his own moral life was deeply tainted by the cor- 
ruption which surrounded him, and that he even gloried 
in his errors with the shamelessness of a Boccaccio. (Foot- 
note) : See especially the notorious and much misused letter 
to his father, in which he begs him to receive a little son 
whom a Bretonne woman had borne him. Another illegitimate 
child of Aenea's died early. — Dr. Pastor's History of the 
Popes, Vol. I., pp. 342, 343. 

Innocent VIIL, 1484-1492. 

Formerly Cardinal Cibo. Buys Election. The Father of two 
Children. Marries his Son in the Vatican; also two Rela- 
tives. Reform. Forged Bulls. Clerical Sports. A 
14-year-old Cardinal. New Means to Ex- 
tort Money. Pawns his Mitre. 

The news of the death of Sixtus IV., which had taken 
place on the 12th of August, 1484, set all Rome in commo- 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 117 

tion. . . A strong movement in favor of the Colonna, and in 
opposition to the chief favorite of the late Pope, Girolamo 
Riario, soon made itself felt. With wild shouts of " Colonna, 
Colonna " the infuriated populace invaded the palace of Giro- 
lamo on the 13th August and devastated it so completely 
that nothing but the bare walls remained. . . In a short time 
the city, to which all the armed vassals of both parties flocked 
in crowds, had become an open camp. Civil war threatened 
to break out every moment. All shops were closed ; no one 
could venture into the streets without endangering his life. 
The palaces of the Cardinals were changed into small 
fortresses; according to the account of one of the ambassa- 
dors, the owners seemed to be prepared for an immediate at- 
tack. The Cardinals Giuliano della Rovere and Rodrigo Bor- 
gia especially had filled their houses with troops, had erected 
outworks and provided themselves with artillery. . . The 
whole town was in arms and uproar. Such was the state 
of Rome when the obsequies of Sixtus IV. began on the 17th 
August, 1484. Only a few of the cardinals were present. . . 
Owing to the energetic interference of Cardinal Marco Bar- 
bo, affairs assumed a more promising aspect. . . On the 25th 
August (1484) the obsequies of Sixtus IV. were finished, 
and on the day following the 25 Cardinals present in Rome 
went into Conclave. . . The Italian Cardinals had a complete 
majority over the four foreigners. . . The Conclaves of 1484 
and 1492 are among the most deplorable in the annals of 
Church history. The. first step taken by the Cardinals in 
Conclave was to draw up an election capitulation ; in doing 
so they openly disregarded the prohibitions of Innocent VI. . . 
The personal interests of the electors (Cardinals) were the 
primary consideration. . . There existed a great divergency 
of opinion as to who would be raised to the Pontifical dignity. 
. . Italian diplomacy was, of course, not idle. . . All the re- 
ports agree in stating that Rodrigo Borgia, (afterwards Pope 
Alexander VI.) was trying his utmost to obtain the Tiara. . . 
Jakob Burchard, who took part in the Conclave, relates that 
Cardinal Cibo won the votes of his future electors by sign- 
ing petitions for favors which they presented to him during 
the night in his cell. . . At 9 o'clock a. m. Cardinal Piccolomini 
was able to announce to the crowd assembled outside the Vati- 
can that Cardinal Cibo had been elected and had assumed the 
name of Innocent VIII. The people burst forth into acclama- 



Il8 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

tions, the bells of the palace of St. Peter began to ring and 
the thunder of cannons resounded from the Castle of St. An- 
gelo. The newly elected Pontiff . . was above middle size. . . 
He studied at Padua and at Rome, and in his youth had no 
intention of taking Orders, and his life at the licentious court 
of Aragon was no better than that of many others in his posi- 
tion. He had two illegitimate children, a daughter, Teodorina, 
and a son, Franceschetto. The statements of Infessura and of 
the poet Marullus, who speak of seven or sixteen children, are 
exaggerations. . . It is certain that from the moment (he) 
entered the ecclesiastical state, all the accusations against the 
purity of his private life cease. . . All accounts agree in 
praising the kindness, the benevolent and amiable disposition 
of the newly elected Pope, but they are equally unanimous in 
condemning his want of independence, and weakness. " He 
gives the impression of a man who is guided rather by the 
advice of others than by his own lights," says the Florentine 
ambassador of him. . It is not surprising that Giuliano della 
Rovere, to whom Cibo owed his promotion to the dignities 
both of Cardinal and Pope, obtained an unbounded ascendancy 
over (him). — Dr. Pastor s History of the Popes, Vol. V ., pp. 
229, 231-236, 238-242. 

On Sept. nth, all the preparations for the coronation 
(of Innocent VIII.) were completed. . . In the morning the 
Pope went to St. Peter's, celebrated High Mass there, and 
gave his benediction to the people. Then Cardinal Piccolo- 
mini crowned him outside the Basilica. After a short in- 
terval he went in solemn procession to take possession of the 
Lateran Palace. The homage of the Jews, usual on such an 
occasion, took place in the interior of the Castle of S. An- 
gelo. . . An immense crowd of people thronged the streets, 
which were decorated with green boughs and gorgeous hang- 
ings and carpets. Sixteen noblemen carried the canopy, un- 
der which the Pope rode on a white horse, richly caparisoned 
in white and gold. He had on his head a golden crown, and 
over his shoulders the pallium, and wore round his neck a 
costly amice, and a cross of gold on his breast, and blessed 
the people as he passed. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, 
Vol. V., pp. 243, 244. 

A project of a marriage between Lorenzo's second 
daughter Maddalena and Franceschetto Cibo (bastard son 
of Pope Innocent VIII.) was broached; but on account of 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. II9 

the youth of the bride its celebration had to be postponed 
for a while. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. V ., pp. 
265, 266. 

(This marriage finally took place, and Dr. Pastor thus 
describes it): On November 13th (1487) the bride entered 
Rome, accompanied by her mother. On the 18th the Pope 
gave a banquet in honour of the bridal pair, and made them 
a present of jewels worth 10,000 ducats. At the beginning 
of his Pontificate, Innocent (VIII.) had refused to allow 
Franceschetto to reside in Rome; now with almost incredible 
weakness he celebrated the nuptials in his own palace. The 
marriage contract was signed on January 20th, 1488. Lor- 
enzo was vexed at finding that Innocent VIII. showed no 
disposition to make an extensive provision for the newly mar- 
ried couple, but his annoyance was still greater at his delay 
in the bestowal of the Cardinal's Hat, which had been prom- 
ised to his second son Giovanni. The marriage of Maddalena 
with Franceschetto, who was by many years her senior, was 
not a happy one ; though utterly rude and uncultured, Cibo 
was deeply tainted with the corruption of his time ; he cared 
for nothing but money, in order to squander it in gambling 
and debauchery; but quite apart from this the alliance be- 
tween the Cibo and Medici families was a most questionable 
proceeding.. " This was the first time that the son of a Pope 
had been publicly recognized, and, as it were, introduced on 
the political stage." . . In the November of the following year 
Innocent VIII. celebrated also in the Vatican the marriage of 
his granddaughter Peretta (daughter of Teodorina) with 
the Genoese merchant Gherardo Usodimare ; the Pope himself 
sat at table at the banquet. . . Burchardi remarks : ' These 
things were not secret but were divulged to and known by 
all the city." — Dr. Pastors History of the Popes, Vol. V., pp. 
269, 2 jo. 

Ferrante's behavior towards the Pope underwent a com- 
plete transformation. Amidst effusive professions of grati- 
tude and devotion he commenced negotiations for a family 
alliance between himself and Innocent VIII. He proposed 
that his grandson, Don Luigi of Aragon, should marry Bat- 
tistina, a daughter of Teodorina and Gherardo Usodimare. . . 
Ferrante despatched an envoy to Innocent VIII. to discuss 
this subject. On the 27th of May, Ferdinand, Prince of 



120 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Capua, son of Alfonso of Calabria, and Ferrante's grandson 
(Don Luigi), came to Rome and was received with royal 
honors. A chronicler of the time says that he will not at- 
tempt to describe the splendours of this reception as no one 
would believe him, and the contemporaneous reports of the 
envoys corrobcrate his statement. A banquet, given by Car- 
dinal Sforza, which lasted six hours, seems to have sur- 
passed in sumptuousness anything hereto imagined. Dra- 
matic performances were included in the pleasures provided 
for the guests. The entertainment given in honour of the 
betrothal of Luigi of Aragon to Battistina Cibo furnished an 
occasion for a fresh display of magnificence in the Vatican it- 
self. . (This marriage took place later, and Dr. Pastor says) : 
The Pope's condition improved so much that he was able to take 
part in the solemn reception of the Holy Spear, and the mar- 
riage of Luigi of Aragon with Battistina Cibo. — Dr. Pastor's 
History of the Popes, Vol V., pp. 284-286, 318. 

Unfortunately nothing of any importance was done un- 
der Innocent VIII. for the reform of ecclesiastical abuses. 
At the same time Infessura's statement that the Pope had 
authorised concubinage in Rome is absolutely unfounded. We 
have documentary evidence that in France, Spain, Portugal 
and Hungary, he punished this vice with severity. (In a 
foot-note here Dr. Pastor says) : See in the Injunction to the 
Archbishop of Rouen to take measures against clerical con- 
cubinage. 

No proof that he (Innocent VIII.) favored it (con- 
cubinage) in Rome has yet been adduced. . . In this particu- 
lar instance it is not difficult to find the probable origin of the 
calumny. In 1489 it was discovered that a band of unprin- 
cipled officials were carrying on a profitable traffic in forged 
Bulls. Neither entreaties nor bribes were of any avail to 
induce Innocent to abstain from punishing the crime with 
the utmost severity. Domenico of Viterbo and Francesco 
Maldente who were found guilty were hanged, and their 
bodies burned in the Campo di Fiore. Now it is notorious 
that some of the forged Bulls were to this effect (authorising 
concubinage), and the supposed permission accorded by In- 
nocent VIII. to the Norwegians to celebrate Mass without 
wine was also a forgery. The existence of such a confederacy 
for forging Bulls throws a 'lurid light on the state of morals 
in the Papal Court, where Franceschetto Cibo (bastard son 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 121 

of the then reigning Pope, Innocent .VIII.) set the worst pos- 
sible example. The increasing prevalence of the system of 
purchasing offices greatly facilitated the introduction of un- 
trustworthy officials. The practice may be explained, but can- 
not be excused, by the financial distress with which Innocent 
VIII. had to contend during the whole of his reign, and the 
almost universal custom of the time. Numberless briefs de- 
plore the terrible dearth of money. In the Bull increasing 
the number of the College of Secretaries from the original six 
to thirty, want of money, which had obliged the Pope to pawn 
even the Papal mitre, is openly assigned as the reason for this 
measure. Between them, the new and the old secretaries 
brought in a sum -of 62,400 gold florins and received in re- 
turn certain privileges and a share in various taxes. Innocent 
VIII. also created the College of Piombatori with an entrance 
fee of 500 gold florins. Even the office of Librarian to the 
Vatican was now for sale. No one can fail to see the evils to 
which such a state of things must give rise. Sigismondo de' 
Conti closes his narrative of the increase in the number of 
secretaries with the words : " Henceforth this office, which had 
been hitherto bestowed as a reward for industry, faithfulness 
and eloquence, became simply a marketable commodity." 
Those who had thus purchased the new offices endeavored to 
indemnify themselves out of other people's pockets. These 
greedy officials, whose only aim was to get as much for them- 
selves as possible out of the churches with which they had to 
do, were naturally detested in all countries, and the most de- 
termined opponents of reform. 

The corruptibility of all the officials increased to an alarm- 
ing extent, carrying with it general insecurity and disorder 
in Rome, since any criminal who had money could secure im- 
munity from punishment. Gregorovius points out that all the 
other cities in Italy were in the same case. The conduct of 
some members of the Pope's immediate circle even gave great 
scandal. Franceschetto Cibo (the Pope's bastard son) was 
mean and avaricious, and led a disorderly life, which was doub- 
ly unbecoming in the son of a Pope ; he paraded the streets at 
night with Girolamo Tuttavilla, forced his way into the houses 
of the citizens for evil purposes, and was often driven out with 
shame. In one night Franceschetto lost 14,000 ducats to Car- 
dinal Riario and complained to the Pope that he had been 
cheated. Cardinal de la Balue also lost 8,000 to the same Car- 



122 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

dinal in a single evening. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, 

Vol V., pp. 350-354- 

Tn order to obtain the means for the gratification of such 
passions as these (gambling), or worse, the worldly minded 
Cardinals were always on the watch to maintain or increase 
their power. This explains the stipulation in the election capit- 
ulation that the number of the Sacred College was not to 
exceed twenty-four. Innocent VIII., however, did not con- 
sider himself bound to observe this condition, and already in 
1485 we hear of his intention of creating new Cardinals. The 
College refused its consent, and the opposition of the older 
Cardinals was so violent and persistent that some years passed 
before the Pope was able to carry out his purpose. In the in- 
terval as many as nine of the old Cardinals had died. "... 
Though, in one respect, these deaths facilitated the creation 
of new Cardinals, on the other (hand) great difficulties were 
caused by the urgent demands of the various Powers for the 
promotion of their candidates. In the beginning of March, 
1489, the negotiations were at last brought to a conclusion, 
and on the 9th of the month five new Cardinals were nominat- 
ed. (Among these was the Pope's nephew.) . . . Three 
others were reserved in petto. (One of the three was a son of 
de' Medici, and Dr. Pastor says of this youth) : Giovanni de' 
Medici, Lorenzo's second son, was then only in his fourteenth 
year; he was born December 11, 1475. His father had des- 
tined him for the Church at an age at which any choice on his 
part was out of the question, and confided his education to 
distinguished scholars. ... At seven years old he re- 
ceived the tonsure, and the chase after rich benefices at once 
began. Lorenzo in his notes details these proceedings with 
appalling candour. In 1483, before he had completed his eighth 
year, Giovanni was presented by Louis XL to the Abbacy of 
Font Douce in the Bishopric of Saintes. Sixtus IV. confirmed 
this nomination, declared him capable of holding benefices 
and made him a Prothonotary Apostolic. Henceforth " what- 
ever good things in the shape of a benefice, commendam, rector- 
ship, fell into the hands of the Medici, was given to Lorenzo's 
son." In 1484 (when he was nine years of age) he was al- 
ready in possession of the rich Abbey of Passignano, and two 
years later was given the venerable Benedictine Abbey of Monte 
Cassino in commendam. But even this was not enough for 
Lorenzo, who with indefatigable persistency besieged the Pope 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. I23 

(who was the father-in-law of Lorenzo's daughter) and Car- 
dinals to admit the boy into the Senate of the Church. He 
did not scruple to represent Giovanni's age as two years more 
than it really was. Innocent VIII. resisted for a long time, 
but finally gave way; and he was nominated with the stipula- 
tion that he was to wait three years before he assumed the 
insignia of the cardinalate or took his seat in the College. Lor- 
enzo found this condition extremely irksome, and, in the begin- 
ning of 1490, instructed his Ambassador to do everything in 
his power to get the time shortened. The Pope, however, who 
wished Giovanni to devote the time of probation to the study 
of Theology and Canon-law, was inexorable, and Lorenzo had 
to wait till the full period had expired. When at last the day 
for his son's elevation arrived he was too ill to be able to assist 
at any of the ceremonial services. The moment they were con- 
cluded the young Cardinal started for Rome, where great prep- 
arations were being made for his reception. On March 22, 
1492, the new Cardinal Deacon of Sta. Maria in Dominica 
(Giovanni, aged then about sixteen years and three months!) 
entered Rome by the Porta del Popolo ; on the following day 
the Pope admitted him, with the customary ceremonies, to the 
Consistory. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. V ., pp. 
354-35^- ' 

Innocent, like his predecessors, invented new means of 
extorting money from the churches to fill his depleted treasury. 
The decrees of (the Councils of) Constance and Basle were 
either entirely forgotten or lost sight of ; ecclesiastical affairs 
were esteemed of little consequence, and artists and savans 
seemed to have taken the place of ecclesiastics. This Pope, 
however, deserves considerable credit for his energetic efforts 
to suppress sorcery and witchcraft and the remnants of the 
heresy of John Huss. — Dr. Alzogs Manual of Universal 
Church History, Vol. II, pp. pod, 907. 

Innocent VIII. was known, before he was made Pope, as 
Giovanni Batista Cibo and he " had passed a frivolous youth." 
— Dr. Pastor s History of the Popes, Vol. IV, p. 410. 

Pope Alexander VI., 1492-1503. 

Before he became Pope he was Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia. 
He bought the Papacy. He was the most infamous of 
the iniquitous Popes of the Roman Catholic Church. 



124 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

His life was a blasphemy. His memory rots. 

The following is a brief epitome of his life in the words 

of Dr. Pastor : 

Character. 

(Calixtus III. had a partiality for one of his nephews, 
Rodrigo Borgia, who was a man of remarkable abilities, but 
sensual.) He loaded him with dignities and favors of all kinds. 
(At the age of twenty-five he was secretly created a Cardinal, 
in 1456) — an unjustifiable action, and the evil was aggravated 
by the fact that Rodrigo (Borgia) was an immoral and vicious 
man. 

In the time of Pius II. the historian Gasparo di Verona 
sketched his (Rodrigo's) portrait in the following terms: " He 
is handsome, of a pleasant and cheerful countenance, with a 
sweet and persuasive manner. With a single glance he can 
fascinate women, and attract them to himself more strongly 
than a magnet draws iron." . . Repeated efforts have . . 
been made in recent years to rehabilitate the moral character 
of this man. In the face of such a perversion of the truth, 
it is the duty of the historian to show that the evidence against 
Rodrigo (Pope Alexander VI.) is so strong as to render it 
impossible to restore his reputation. — Dr. Pastor's History of 
the Popes, Vol. II, pp. 448-452. 

The first light thrown upon Rodrigo's immorality occurs 
in an admonitory letter of the year 1460, in which Pius II. re- 
proaches the Cardinal. . Says Pius II : " You, beloved son, gov- 
ern the Bishopric of Valencia, the first in Spain ; you are also 
Chancellor of the Church, and you sit with the Pope among 
the Cardinals, the Counsellors of the Holy See. We leave it 
to your own judgment whether it is becoming to your dignity 
to pay court to ladies, to send fruit and wine to the one you 
love, and all day long to think of nothing but pleasure. . . . 
A Cardinal must be blameless and an example of moral life be- 
fore the eyes of all men. What right have we to be angry if 
temporal princes call us by names that are little honorable . . ? 
We trust in your prudence to remember your dignity, 
and not suffer yourself to be called a gallant by women and 
youths." The .hopes of Pius II. were not realised. Cardinal 
Rodrigo would not change his mode of life. — Dr. Pastor's His- 
tory of the Popes, Vol IL, pp. 452, 453, 455- 




board of education. 1 25 

Grossly Immoral. Has Four Children. Luxury. 

They . . (the worldly Cardinals) allowed themselves the 
utmost license in morals ; this was specially the case with Rod- 
rigo Borgia (afterwards Pope Alexander VI.). His uncle 
Calixtus III., had made him a Cardinal and Vice-Camerlengo 
while he was stiil very young, and he had accumulated bene- 
fices to an extent which gave him a princely income. In the 
time of Sixtus IV. he was already, according to d'Estouteville, 
the wealthiest member of the College of Cardinals. One of 
his contemporaries describes him as a fine-looking man and a 
brilliant cavalier, cheery and genial in manner, and winning 
and fluent in conversation ; irresistibly attractive to women. 
His immoral courses brought upon him a severe rebuke from 
Pius II. But nothing had any effect. Even after he had re- 
ceived priest's orders, which took place in August, 1468, and 
when he was given the bishopric of Albano, which he after- 
wards exchanged in 1476 for that of Porto, he still would not 
give up his dissolute life ; to the end of his days he remained 
the slave of the demon of sensuality. From the year 1460 Van- 
ozza de Cataneis, born of Roman parents' in 1442, was his ac- 
knowledged mistress. She was married three times ; in 1474 
to Domenico of Arignano ; in 1480 to a Milanese, Giorgio de 
Croce; and in i486 to a Mantuan, Carlo Canale, and died in 
Rome on the 26th of November, 15 18, aged 76. The names 
of the four children whom she bore to the Cardinal (Rodrigo 
Borgia) are inscribed on her tomb in the following order: 

Caesar, Juan, Jofre, and Lucrezia. This inscription, 

originally in Sta. Maria del Popolo, has disappeared from 
thence, like many others, but has been preserved in a col- 
lection of MSS. It is absurd to doubt its genuineness. . It 
runs thus : 

" Vanotiae Cathanae Cesare Valentiae Joane Cadiae. 
Jofrido Scylatii et.Lucretia Ferrariae ducib, filiis nobili 
Probitate insigni religione eximia pari et aetate et 
Prudentia optime de xenodochio Lateranen. meritae. 
Hieronymus Picus fideicomiss. procur. ex test, pos." 

Vanozza is the diminutive of Giovanni, as Paluzzo is of Paolo ; 
according to Jovius, in her later days she strove to make repar- 
ation for her sins by her piety. Besides these, Cardinal Rod- 
rigo had other children, — a son, Pedro Luis, certainly born be- 
fore 1460, (which) may be gathered from the deed of legitima- 



126 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

tion granted by Sixtus IV., Nov. 5, i486, in which Pedro Luis 
is called " adolescens," and described as the issue of de tunc 
Diacono Cardinali et soluta ; and a daughter, Girolama, but 
apparently by' a different mother. Rodrigo turned to his Span- 
ish home for the careers of these children, who were legitima- 
tised one after another. In 1485 he obtained the dukedom of 
Gandia for Pedro Luiz. . . in 1488 he (Pedro) came to Rome, 
and in August fell sick there and died, certainly before the year 
149 1. He left all that he possessed to his brother Juan, the 
best of Rodrigo's sons, born in 1474, who eventually married 
his brother's intended bride. The Cardinal's third son, Caesar, 
born in 1475, was from childhood, without any regard to his 
aptitude or wishes, destined to the Church. Sixtus IV. on 1st 
of October, 1480, dispensed him from the canonical impediment 
for the reception of Holy Orders, caused by his being born 
out of wedlock, because he was the son of a Cardinal and his 
mother was a married woman. At the age of seven years 
Caesar was made a Protonotary, and was appointed to benefices 
in Xativa and other cities in Spain, and under Innocent VIII. 
to the Bishopric of Pampeluna. Jofre also, born in 1480 or 
1481, was intended for the Church; he is mentioned as a Can- 
on, Prebendary, and Archdeacon of the Cathedral of Valencia. 
Lucrezia, born in 1478, seemed, like her brothers, destined to 
make her home in her father's native land, for in 1491 she was 
betrothed to a Spaniard. The mother of these children, Van- 
ozza de Cateneis, possessed substantial property in Rome, and 
a house on the Piazza Branca, close to the palace which Rodrigo 
Borgia had built for himself. ... In the reign of Inno- 
cent VIII. Jacopo da Volterra writes of Cardinal Rodrigo: 
" He has good abilities and great versatility. . He is naturally 
shrewd. He is reputed to be very rich, and his influence is 
great on account of his connections with so many kings and 
princes. He has built for himself a splendid and commodious 
palace. . . . His revenues from his numerous benefices 
and Abbeys in Italy and Spain and his three bishoprics of Va- 
lencia, Porto, and Cartagena are enormous ; while his post of 
Vice-Camerlengo is said also to bring him in 8,000 gold ducats 
yearly. He possesses immense quantities of silver-plate, pearls, 
hangings, and vestments embroidered in gold and silk, and 
learned books of all sorts, and all of such splendid quality as 
would befit a king or a pope. I pass over the sumptuous adorn- 
ments of his litters and trappings for his horses, and all his 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 1 27 

gold and silver and silks, together with his magnificent ward- 
robe and his hoards of treasure." We obtain a highly interest- 
ing glimpse into the amazing luxury of Cardinal Borgia's pal- 
ace from a hitherto unknown letter of Cardinal Ascanio Sfor- 
za, dated 22nd of October, 1484. On that day Borgia, who, 
as a rule, was not a lover of the pleasures of the table, gave a 
magnificent banquet in his palace. . The whole palace was 
splendidly decorated. In the great entrance halls the walls 
were covered with hangings representing various historical 
events. A smaller room opened into this, also hung with ex- 
quisite Gobelin tapestry. The carpets on the floor were se- 
lected to harmonize with the rest of the furniture, of which 
the most prominent piece was a sumptuous state-coach up- 
holstered in red-satin, with a canopy over it. This room also 
contained the Cardinal's credenza, a chest surmounted by a 
slab, on which was ranged for exhibition an immense quantity 
of table plate and drinking vessels in gold and silver, while the 
lower part was a marvel of exquisitely finished work. This 
apartment was flanked by two others, one of which was hung 
with satin and carpeted, the divan in it being of Alexandrian 
velvet ; while in the other, still more splendid, the coach was 
covered with gold brocade and magnificently decorated. The 
cloth on the central table was of velvet, and the chairs which 
surrounded it were exquisitely carved. — Dr. Pastor's History 
of the Popes, Vol V ., pp. 362-367. 

Buys the Papacy. 

In view of the failing health of Innocent VIII. the Cabinets 
of the Italian powers had for some time been occupied with 
the probability of a Papal election. . . . On July 25, 1492, 
when the death of Innocent VIII. was hourly expected, the 
intrigues in regard to the election were at their height. . . . 
Some were for Piccolomini and some again for Borgia. The 
Florentine envoy ... on the 28th July mentions stren- 
uous efforts on the part of the Roman barons to influence the 
election, and the foreign powers were equally active. It was 
currently reported that Charles VIII. of France had paid 200,- 
000 ducats into a bank, and the Republic of Genoa 100,000, in 
order to secure the election of Giuliano della Rovere. On the 
strength of this they fully expected that their countryman 
would be chosen. As soon as it became known that the Pope 
was seriously ill an eager interchange of communications at 



128 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

once commenced between the Italian powers, but they were 
unable to come to any agreement. . . . Giuliano della 
Rovere did not want for rivals. . . . The chances were 
against Borgia because he was a Spaniard, and many of the 
Italian Cardinals were determined not to elect a foreigner ; but 
the wealth of the Spanish Cardinal was destined to turn the 
scales in the Conclave. . . . The Conclave began on Au- 
gust 6th. On the ioth of August the Florentine Ambassador, 
who was one of the guards of the Conclave, writes that there 
had been three scrutinies without result; CarafTa and Costa 
seemed to have the best chance. Both were worthy men, and 
one,. CarafTa, was a man of distinguished abilities. The election 
of either would have been a great blessing to the Church. Un- 
fortunately a sudden change came over the whole situation. 
As soon as Ascanio Sforza perceived that there was no likeli- 
hood that he would himself be chosen, he began to lend a will- 
ing ear to Borgia's brilliant offers. Rodrigo (Borgia) not only 
promised him the office of Vice-Chancellor with his own palace, 
but in addition to this the Castle of Nepi, the Bishopric of 
Erlau with a revenue of 10,000 ducats, and other benefices. 
Cardinal Orsini was to receive the two fortified towns of 
Monticelli and Soriano, the legation of the Marches and the 
Bishoprics of Carthagena; Cardinal Colonna, the Abbacy of 
Subiaco with all the surrounding villages; (Cardinal) Savelli, 
Civita Castellana and the Bishopric of Majorca; (Cardinal) 
Pallavicini, the Bishopric of Pampeluna; (Cardinal) Giovanni 
Michiel, the suburban bishopric of Porto ; the Cardinals Sclaf- 
enati, Sanseverino, Riario and Domenico della Rovere, rich ab- 
bacies and valuable benefices. By these simoniacal means, 
counting his own vote and those of the Cardinals Ardicino del- 
la Porta and Conti who belonged to the Sforza party, Borgia 
had thus secured 24 votes, and only one more was wanting to 
complete the majority of two-thirds. This one, however, was 
not easy to obtain. The Cardinals CarafTa, Costa, Piccolomini 
and Zeno were not to be won by any promises however brilliant ; 
and the young Giovanni de' Medici held with them. Cardinal 
Basso followed Giuliano della Rovere, who would not hear of 
Borgia's election. Lorenzo Cibo also held aloof from these 
unhallowed transactions. Thus Gherardo, now in his ninety- 
sixth year and hardly in possession of his faculties, alone re- 
mained, and he was persuaded by those who were about him 
to give his vote to Borgia. The election was decided in the 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 120, 

night between the ioth and nth August, 1492, and in the early 
morning the window of the Conclave was opened and the Vice- 
Chancellor, Rodrigo Borgia, was proclaimed Pope as Alex- 
ander VI. The result was unexpected ; it was obtained by the 
rankest simony. Such were the means, as the annalist of the 
Church says, by which, in accordance with the inscrutable 
counsels of Divine Providence, a man attained to the highest 
dignity, who in the early days of the Church would not have 
been admitted even to the lowest rank of the clergy, on account 
of his immoral life. The days of distress and confusion be- 
gan for the Roman Church ; the prophetic words of Savon- 
arola were fulfilled ; the sword of the wrath of God smote the 
earth, and the time of chastisement had arrived. — Dr. Pastor s 
History of the Popes, Vol. V., pp. 377-386. 

One of his Mistresses. 

Let us see what Dr. Pastor has to say further about " the 
notorious Giulia Farnese " : 

Writers speak of an unlawful connection between Alex- 
ander VI. and Farnese's sister Giulia {la bella). Infessura 
calls Giulia, Alexander's concubine ; and Matarazzo in his 
pamphlet, p. 4, and Sannazar, Epigr., 1, 2, both use the same 
term. A stronger proof is to be found in a letter of Alexander 
to Lucrezia Borgia, dated July 24, 1494, in which he expresses 
his annoyance at Giulia's departure. Any further doubt in re- 
gard to these relations, which began while he was still a Car- 
dinal, is dispelled by the letters of L. Pucci of the 23rd and 
24th December, 1493, published by Gregorovius in his Lucrezia 
Borgia. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. V , pp. 417, 
418. 

Has a Son Born While Pope and Legitimates Him. 

A Bull of 17th of September, 1501, gave to Rodrigo, the 
son of Lucrezia and Alfonso, then two years old, the Dukedom 
of Sermoneta with Ninfa, Cisterna, Nettuno, Ardea, Nemi, Al- 
bano, and other towns. The Dukedom of Nepi, which included 
Palestrina, Olevano, Paliano, Frascati, Anticoli, and other 
places, was bestowed on Juan Borgia, also an infant. This 
child (Juan Borgia) was legitimised by a Bull on 1st Septem- 
ber, 1 50 1, as the natural offspring of Caesar, and his age in- 
cidentally mentioned as about three years. A second Bull of 



I30 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

the same date (1st September, 1501), legitimised this same 
Juan as Alexander's own son. (Dr. Pastor has voluminous 
foot-notes concerning these Bulls and the paternity of this Juan 
Borgia, and from them I cull the following) : These two Bulls 
are to be found in the State Archives at Modena. The first is 
a copy, the second the original. Another original draft of the 
second Bull is to be found, according to Thuasne, in the 
Archives of the Duke of Ossuna. In view of possible fu- 
ture apologists in the style of (the Catholic) Ollivier, it may 
perhaps be well to observe that I found both Bulls in the Se- 
cret Archives of the Vatican in the official Regesta of Alex- 
ander's reign. Creighton, IV., 19, supposes that Alexander, 
in his anxiety to secure the position of Caesar's bastard son, 
accused himself in the second Bull of a fault which he had not 
committed; but from Burchardi Diarium, II., 170, and especial- 
ly from Sigismondo de' Conti, II., 253, who is always trust- 
worthy, it is plain that Juan, who seems to have been born on 
the 1 8th June, 1497, really was Alexander's son. . . . An 
inscription in which Franciscus Cardinal Cusentinus is 
called Juan's guardian has been published in Arch. d. Soc. 
Rom., VII., 403 ; and also IV., 90, in opposition to Ademollo's 
hypothesis that Juan was the child of Alexander and Lucrezia. 
(Main text) : These undoubtedly genuine documents nullify 
all attempts to rebut the accusations against the moral conduct 
of the Pope. — Dr. Pastor s History of the Popes, Vol. VI. , pp. 
104-106. 

Makes his Daughter Lucrezia Regent. 

On the 27th of July (1501) Alexander went to Castel 
Gandolfo and Rocca di Papa and thence to Sermoneta. He 
had the effrontery to hand over the Regency of the palace to 
Lucrezia Borgia during his absence with power to open his 
correspondence. (Foot-note) : When the Pope went to Nepi 
in the autumn the same arrangement was made for the time 
of his absence (from 25th Sept. to 23rd Oct.). Of course 
Lucrezia was only Regent in regard to secular affairs, but such 
a thing had never been done before, and was a startling breach 
of decorum. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. VI., pp. 
103, 104. 

A Pointed Poem. 

In his (Alexander the VI's) own palace one day/a set of 
verses were put up, urging the Colonna and Orsini to come 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. I3I 

forward bravely to the rescue of their afflicted country ; to 
slay the bull (a play upon the Borgia arms) which was de- 
vastating Ausonia ; to fling his calves (bastard children) into 
the raging Tiber, and himself into hell. — Dr. Pastor's History 
of the Popes, Vol VI. , p. 59. 

Forever Infamous. 

Any further attempt to rehabilitate Alexander VI. is ren- 
dered forever impossible by the documents from the Archives 
of the Duke of Ossuna in Madrid recently published by Thuas- 
ne. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. II. , p. 452, foot- 
note. 

From henceforth it is clear that the rehabilitation of 
(Pope) Alexander VI. is a hopeless task. — Dr. Pastor's His- 
tory of the Popes, Vol. V ., preface p. viii. 

He Muzzled the Press. 

Alexander the VI. distinguished. himself by muzzling the 
press. 

The severe censorship which Alexander (VI) exercised 
with regard to all publications, would seem to strengthen the 
suspicion that he had a dread of public opinion. — Dr. Alzog's 
Manual of Universal Church History, Vol. II., p. 912. 

His Censorial edict for Germany, dated 1st June, 1501, is 
a very important document in this respect. In this, which is 
the first Papal pronouncement on the printing of books, it is de- 
clared that the art of printing is extremely valuable in provid- 
ing means for the multiplication of approved and useful books ; 
but may be most mischievous if it is abused for the dissemina- 
tion of bad ones. Therefore measures must be taken to re- 
strain printers from reproducing writings directed against the 
Catholic Faith or calculated to give scandal to Catholics. — Dr. 
Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. VI., pp. 154, 155. 

Energetically Repressed Immoral Heretics. 

In Italy Alexander VI. energetically repressed the here- 
tical tendencies which were especially prevalent in Lombardy. 
On the 31st January, 1500, two inquisitors were sent by him 
with letters of recommendation to the Bishop of Olmutz, to 
proceed against the very numerous Picards and Waldensians 
in Bohemia and Moravia, who led extremely immoral lives. — 
Dr. Pastor s History of the Popes, Vol. VL } p. 156. 



132 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Julius II., 1503-1513. 

He was the war Pope. He led his troops on the battle 
field. He bought the Papacy. He was the father of children. 

Julius II. was formerly Giuliano della Rovere. 

(Before Julius II. became Pope he was known as Giuliano 
della Rovere. He was made a Cardinal in youth.) Sixtus 
IV. had not occupied the Papal throne for many months be- 
fore two of his youthful nephews, Giuliano della Rovere and 
Pietro Riario, were admitted into the Sacred College. . . Car- 
dinal Ammanati speaks of the elevation of, two youths, now 
for the first time brought out of obscurity, and altogether in- 
experienced, as an act of imbecility. . . Giuliano della Rovere 
was certainly the most remarkable of the two nephews. . . 
If his moral character was not unblemished, his outward de- 
meanor was always becoming. — Dr. Pastor's History of the 
Popes, Vol. IV., pp. 233, 236, 237. 

Table Bill $4,600 to $6,900 Monthly. Objectionable Ways to 
Raise Money. Bribery in Roman Court. 

He (Julius II.) kept a better table than Alexander VI.; 
the monthly bill for this (Julius' table) was between 2,000 
and 3,000 ducats. Julius II. was so economical in his house- 
keeping that he was quite unjustly accused of being a miser. 
It is quite true that he was very careful to keep his treasury 
always well filled. He quite realised the futility of any pre- 
tensions that had not physical force to back them, and knew 
that an efficient army meant plenty of money. In the begin- 
ning of his reign Julius II. had great financial difficulties to 
contend with, in consequence of the extravagance of his pre- 
decessor. He had to borrow money, and to pay Alexander's 
debts, even down to the medicine which he had required in 
his last illness. (Some historians allege that Caesar, a son of 
Pope Alexander VI., appropriated his father's treasure im- 
mediately after his death.) Some of the means which he 
(Julius II.) adopted for the replenishment of his treasury were 
of a very objectionable kind. His subjects were certainly not 
oppressed with taxation, but it cannot be denied that he not 
only sold offices, but also benefices. This formed a serious 
hindrance to the reform which was so much needed ; for if 
that were carried out, it would mean the abolition of all such 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 1 33 

sales. It is true that under Julius II. the money was employed 
for the interests of the Church, and not for the enrichment 
of his family; but this is no justification for persistence in 
simony. The complaints of contemporaries both in Italy and 
abroad shew how strongly this abuse was resented. (A foot 
note.) On the bribery which prevailed in the Roman Court 
under Julius II., see the Swiss Ambassadorial Report in the 
Anz. f. Schweiz. Gesch. (1892), 373. — Dr. Pastor's History 
of the Popes, Vol. VI., pp. 223, 224. 

Had Three Natural Daughters. 

Giuliano della Rovere (Pope Julius II.) had three daugh- 
ters. — See foot-note, Dr. Pastors History of the Popes, Vol. 
V., p. 369. 

Accused of Sodomy. 

Julius IPs. obstinate confidence in (Cardinal) Alidosi has 
been made to serve as a ground for the very worst accusations 
of immorality against him. . . Creighton writes : " It is hard 
to account for the infatuation of Julius II. towards Cardinal 
Alidosi, and we cannot wonder that contemporary scandal 
attributed it to the vilest motives." ' II papa era molto vitioso 
e dedito alia libidine Gomorrea," (The Pope was very much 
depraved and addicted to the lechery of Gomorrah — now the 
crime of sodomy), says a relazione of Trevisan, printed by 
Brosch, Julius II., 296. The charge was often repeated with 
reference to Alidosi. It was a rude way of explaining 
what could not be explained. — Dr.. Pastor's History of the 
Popes, Vol. VI., pp. 342, 351, foot-note. 

Leo X., 1513-1521. Lavishly Extravagant. Least Fit- 
ted to Push Reforms. Religion Secondary. Table 
Bill over $16,000.00 Monthly. 

(After the death of Julius II.) the fifty Cardinals who 
went into conclave, elected the young Cardinal-deacon, Gio- 
vanni dei Medici, now in the thirty-eighth year of his age. 
(He had been admitted to the Cardinalate when he was four- 
teen years old.) — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. V., 
P- 356- 

On ascending the papal throne, March 19, A. D. 15 13, 
(he) took the name Leo X. . Leo was a true representative of 



134 T HE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

his age. An ardent admirer of classic and humane culture, 
he possessed a refined taste, had a love of elegant literature, 
and was sincerely devoted to the arts and sciences. But, for 
all this, he was entirely destitute of the motives and spirit 
which should form the guiding principles in the life of an ec- 
clesiastic, and was, moreover, lavishly extravagant. . . The 
Vatican became the resort of savans, literati, and artists. . . 
The work of the Lateran Council, which Louis of France now 
acknowledged, was again taken up where it had been left off 
in the fifth session, on the death of Julius II. The old ques- 
tion of reform was again discussed and decrees proposed 
which provided for a purer morality and a stricter discipline . . 
abolished the practice of the same person holding several ec- 
clesiastical benefices, the possession of which would require 
incompatible duties ; condemned the concubinage of the clergy. 
. . . These salutary measures were received with indifference. 
The evil had grown to such vast dimensions that the men of 
that age lacked the nerve, the vigor, and the determination to 
look it steadily in the face, to grapple with it, and to persevere 
in the struggle till it should have been crushed, or at least 
rendered harmless. And, of all the men of his time, Leo was 
perhaps least fitted, either by nature or education, to under- 
take and conduct to a successful issue so difficult a task.— Dr. 
Alzog's Manual of Universal Church History, Vol II., pp. 

9 20 > 9 21 - 

To artists and scholars he was magnanimous, noble, and 
generous ; patronizing them, not from feelings of vanity, but 
from taste and conviction, and as one having a practical, and 
thorough knowledge of what he was doing, and why he did it. 
The age of Augustus seemed to have again dawned upon 
Rome. More devoted to art than to the duties of his offices — 
more enamored of the charms of elegant literature than of the 
chaste beauty of Christian virtue — Leo pursued toward Luther 
a policy at once halting and ineffective. Regarding religion 
himself as a matter of only secondary importance, he could 
but ill comprehend how others should bear trials for its sake, 
and expose themselves to countless dangers in pushing for- 
ward its interests. His pontificate, though one of the most 
brilliant, was by no means the most happy, in the history of 
the Church. His lavish extravagance occasioned in great 
part the disastrous controversies of the age, and was a source 
of no little embarrassment to his successors in the Papacy. He 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 135 

died December i, 1521. — Dr. Alzog's Manual of Universal 
Church History, Vol. III., pp. 43, 44. 

(Leo) seemed either totally oblivious of, or entirely dis- 
regarded the decay that had come upon every branch of ec- 
clesiastical discipline, and which, while it was eating into and 
poisoning the very life of the Church, was no uncertain token 
of the sad days that were soon to follow. — Dr. Alzog's Man- 
ual of Universal Church History, Vol. II., p. 922. 

The monthly bill for the table of Pope Leo X., the suc- 
cessor of Julius II., was 8,000 ducats. (See Dr. Pastor's His- 
tory of the Popes, Vol. VI, p. 223.) Assuming that the value 
of the ducat was, as stated by the Century Dictionary, about 
$2.30, His Holiness spent only $18,400 per month for some- 
thing to eat and drink. 

Indulgences. 

Indulgences were often a source of graft in the olden 
time, and they are a prolific source of gain to the clerical graft- 
ers of our day. 

Since the abuse of Indulgences was especially horrible 
in the reign of Pope Leo X., I deem this the proper place to 
insert quotations upon the subject: 

One Explanation of Decay of Spiritual Life. 

The decay of spiritual life is inevitably followed by a re- 
laxation of penitential discipline. The abuse consequent up- 
on granting indulgences to crusaders, to those contributing 
to the building of St. Peter's Church, in Rome, and to others 
in commutation for similar works, modified the rigors, and 
eventually wrought the complete destruction of the whole pen- 
itentiary system. To the earnest zeal of the early Christian 
ages succeeded an incorrigible levity. The insolent sarcasm 
of sectaries, which grew daily more violent and offensive, tend- 
ed to cool the ardor for penitential practices ; and they were 
largely aided in their work by the lethargy and remissness of 
many of the clergy, who, instead of instructing the faithful, 
strengthening the weak, and encouraging all in works of pen- 
ance, wholly neglected their priestly duties. — Dr. Alzog's 
Manual of Universal Church History, Vol. II., pp. 1056, 1057. 



I36 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

In Connection with Jubilees. 

Plenary indulgences were first granted to the Crusaders ; 
next, to those who took arms against seditious heretics and 
pagans in Northern Europe ; and, finally, to places of pilgrim- 
age, and to those who, in making the Jubilee, complied with 
the prescribed conditions. The Jubilee of the Jews, or rather 
a custom analagous to it, was perpetuated under the Christian 
dispensation, and during the closing years of every century 
an extraordinary throng of pilgrims might be seen in Rome. 
Moved by the recital of an old man, aged one hundred and 
seven years, who said he remembered that, just a century pre- 
vious, he had witnessed similar throngs of people coming to 
the Holy City, Boniface VIII., in 1300, granted a plenary in- 
dulgence to all pilgrims who from penitential motives should 
visit the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul. Strangers were 
required to make these visits on fifteen and the Romans on 
thirty different days in the course of the year. On this oc- 
casion, two hundred thousand pilgrims gathered about the 
Holy Father. The interval between one Jubilee and another 
was reduced by Clement VI. (1343) to fifty years, by Urban 
VI. (1389) to thirty-three, and by Paul II. (1470) to twenty- 
five. 

The venal spirit of the Romans could not resist the temp- 
tation of reaping from these pious gatherings a harvest of 
sordid gain. 

Alexander of Hales is the author of the doctrine that they 
are drawn from the superabundant merits of Christ and His 
saints. . . (He) also teaches that, by the power of the Keys, 
indulgences may be applied by the Church to the dead as well 
as the living — a doctrine which St. Thomas Aquinas establishes 
by still stronger arguments. — Dr. Alzog's Manual of Uni- 
versal Church History, Vol. II., pp. 797-799. 

In Relation to Pope Nicholas V. Gold the Inspiration. 

The restoration of peace to the Church, after so protract- 
ed a period of conflict and confusion, was deemed by Nicholas 
V. a fitting occasion for the proclamation of a Universal Jubilee. 
. . The obstacles presented by the war in Italy and the pesti- 
lence which followed, were not sufficient to deter the Pope 
from his project, and, on the 19th January, 1449, in pres- 
ence of the assembled Cardinals, he solemnly imparted his 
benediction, after which a French archbishop read aloud the 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 137 

list of all the Jubilees ever celebrated in the Church, and then 
proclaimed the new one. All who, during a given time, should 
daily visit the four principal churches of Rome — St. Peter's 
St. Paul's, the Lateran Basilica, and Sta. Maria Maggiore — 
and confess their sins with contrition, were to gain a plenary 
indulgence, that is to say, remission of the temporal punish- 
ments due for those sins from whose guilt and eternal punish- 
ment they had been absolved. — Dr. Pastor's History of the 
Popes, Vol. II., pp. J4, 75. 

As early as the summer of 1447 the plague had broken 
out in Venice, and before long it had spread over a great part 
of Italy. In October it reached Perugia, where it raged for 
several years. During the hot season of 1448 the ravages 
of the malady (called Plague-sore), were terrible, and before 
the end of the year it had visited Rome. In 1449 the cry of 
"The plague!" again rose from city after city. France and 
Germany also suffered severely. But throughout the whole 
of the fifteenth century the destroying angel nowhere found 
a richer harvest than on the blood-stained soil of Italy. — Dr. 
Pastor's History of the Popes, .Vol. II., pp. 74, 75, foot-notes. 

The " golden year " opened on the Christmas Day of 1449. 
The concourse was immense. Then began a pilgrimage of the 
nations to the Eternal City, like that which had taken place a 
century before. The pilgrims flocked from every country in 
Europe ; there were Italians and " Ultramontanes," men and 
women, rich and poor, young and old, healthy and sick. As 
Augustinus Dathus says in his history of Sienna, " Countless 
multitudes of Frenchmen, Germans, Spaniards, Portuguese, 
Greeks, Armenians, Dalmatians and Italians were to be seen 
hastening to Rome." . . An eye-witness likens the thronging 
multitudes of pilgrims to a flight of starlings or a swarm of 
ants. The Pope did everything in his power to render their 
passage through Italy easy and safe ; in Rome itself he made 
the most extensive preparations, and especially sought to se- 
cure an adequate supply of provisions. But the pilgrims ar- 
rived in such overwhelming masses that all his efforts proved 
insufficient. . . Cristoforo a Soldo, chronicler of the city of 
Brescia, says, " A greater crowd of Christians was never known 
to hasten to any Jubilee. . In short people of all ranks in 
Christendom daily arrived in such multitudes in Rome that 
there were millions in the city. And this continued for the 



13$ THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

whole year, excepting in the summer, on account of the plague, 
which carried off innumerable victims. But almost as soon 
as it abated at the beginning of the cold season the influx again 
commenced." The Roman chronicler Paoli di Benedetto di Co- 
la dello Mastro has left us a description of the Jubilee. . " I rec- 
ollect," he says, " that even in the beginning of the Christmas 
month a great many people came to Rome for the Jubilee. . 
Such a crowd of pilgrims came all at once to Rome that the 
mills and bakeries were quite insufficient to provide bread for 
them. And the number of pilgrims daily increased, wherefore 
the Pope ordered the handkerchief of St. Veronica to be ex- 
posed every Sunday, and the heads of the Apostles, St. Peter 
and St. Paul, every Saturday ; the other relics in all the Roman 
churches were always exposed. The Pope solemnly gave 
his benediction at St. Peter's every Sunday. As the unceasing 
influx of the faithful made the want of the most necessary 
means of subsistence to be more and more pressing, the Pope 
granted a plenary indulgence to each pilgrim on condition of 
contrite confession and of visits to the churches on three days. 
This great concourse of pilgrims continued from Christmas 
through the whole month of January, and then diminished so 
considerably that the innkeepers were discontented, and every 
one thought it was at an end, when, in the middle of Lent, such 
a great multitude of pilgrims again appeared, that in the fine 
weather all the vineyards were filled with them, and they could 
not find sleeping-place elsewhere. . At night many of the pil- 
grims were to be seen sleeping beneath the porticos, while oth- 
ers wandered about in search of missing fathers, sons or com- 
panions ; it was pitiful to see them. And this went on until 
the Feast of the Ascension, when the multitudes of pilgrims 
again diminished, because the plague came to Rome. Many 
people then died, especially many of these pilgrims ; all the 
hospitals and churches were full of the sick and dying, and 
they were to be seen in the infected streets falling down like 
dogs. Of those who with great difficulty, scorched with heat 
and covered with dust, departed from Rome, a countless num- 
ber fell a sacrifice to the terrible pestilence, and graves were 
to be seen all along the roads even in Tuscany and Lombardy." 
— Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. II., pp. 76-78, 83, 84. 

' The court of Rome," writes the envoy of the Teutonic 
Order, " is sadly scattered and put to flight ; in fact, there is 
no Court left. One man embarks for Catalonia, another for 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 1 39 

Spain, everyone is looking for a place where he may take ref- 
uge. Cardinals, bishops, abbots, monks, and al 1 . sorts of peo 
pie, without exception, flee from Rome as the apostles fled 
from our Lord on Good Friday. Our Holy Father also left 
Rome on the 15th July, retreating from the pestilence. . . His 
Holiness goes from one castle to another, with a little Court 
and very few attendants, trying if he can find a healthy place 
anywhere. He has now moved to a castle called Fabriano, 
in which he spent some time last year, and has, it is said, for- 
bidden, under pain of excommunication, loss of preferment and 
of Papal favour, that any one who has been in Rome, what- 
ever his rank, should come within seven miles of him, save 
only the Cardinals, a few of whom, with four servants, have 
gone to the said castle and are living there." Even in the 
previous year the Pope had, on the outbreak of the plague, 
fled from Rome with some few members of the Court and 
gone first to the neighborhood of Rieti, and then to the castle 
of Spoleto, whence he was driven by the malady. . Poggio 
mockingly declared that the Pope wandered about after the 
manner of the Scythians. — Dr.- Pastor's History of the Popes, 
Vol II. , pp. 86, 87. 

When the pestilence ceased with the first cold of winter 
the Pope returned to Rome. Pilgrims again began to pour 
in. . . 'So many people came to Rome," according to an eye- 
witness, ' that the city could not contain the strangers, al- 
though every house became an inn. Pilgrims begged, for the 
love of God, to be taken in on payment . . of a good price, but 
it was not possible. They had to spend the nights out of doors. 
Many perished from cold ; it was dreadful to see. Still such 
multitudes thronged together that the city was actually fam- 
ished. . If you wanted to go to St. Peter's it was impossible 
on account of the masses of men that filled the streets. . . All 
Rome was filled so that one could not go through the streets." 
—Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. II., pp. 88, 89. 

* Perhaps," says the chronicle of Forli, " it may have been 
in order to moderate the Pope's joy at the unwonted and ex- 
traordinary concourse of pilgrims, and to preserve him from 
pride, that an event was fated to occur which caused him the 
deepest sorrow." A very beautiful German lady of rank, who 
had undertaken the pilgrimage to Rome, was, in the district 
of Verona, set upon and carried away by soldiers. Sigismondo 



I4O THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Malatesta of Rimini was generally looked upon as the instigator 
of this crime, which caused great excitement in Italy, but not- 
withstanding the careful inquiries at once set on foot by the 
Venetians, the mystery was never cleared up. The disaster 
was all the more distressing to the Pope, inasmuch as it was 
calculated to deter many rich and distinguished personages 
from setting forth on a journey which was already deemed in 
itself most perilous. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. 
II., pp. 95, p6. 

" Immense sums of money poured into Rome during the 
Jubilee Year, especially at its beginning and at its close, when 
the -concourse of pilgrims was greatest. A chronicler mentions 
four classes as chiefly benefited : First, the money-changers ; 
secondly, the apothecaries ; thirdly, the artists who painted 
copies of the holy handkerchief ; and fourthly, the inn-keepers. 
. . . On this occasion, as in previous Jubilees, the pilgrims 
brought an immense number of offerings. Manetti, the Pope's 
biographer, says that an exceedingly large quantity of silver 
and gold found its way into the treasury of the Church, and 
Vespasiano da Bisticci tells us that Nicholas V. was able to 
deposit a hundred thousand golden florins in the bank of the 
Medici alone. From the chronicle of Perugia we learn that 
money was dear at this time, and could only with difficulty 
be obtained, because " it all flowed into Rome for the Jubilee." 
The Pope thus became possessed of the resources necessary for 
his great schemes, the promotion of art and learning; the poor 
also had a share of the wealth. — Dr. Pastor's History of the 
Popes, Vol. II. , p. 102. 

The experience of all Christian ages has shown that pil- 
grimages of clergy and laity to the tombs of the Apostles at 
Rome are a most effectual means of elevating and strengthen- 
ing the Catholic life of nations, and of uniting them more 
closely to the Holy See. (Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, 
Vol. II., p. 103). 

I will leave it to my readers to reconcile the last with the 
two following quotations from Dr. Paster : 

The concourse of Jubilee pilgrims, which commenced on 
Christmas Day (1474) did not at first equal the expectations 
entertained. . . Respect for the clergy had been much shaken 
by former experiences. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, 
Vol IV., p. 280. 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. I4I 

Of Italian pilgrims one of the most notable was Elizabetta 
Gonzaga. . . She went incognito (to Rome during the Jubi- 
lee of Pope Alexander VI. in 1500) with one or two attend- 
ants, and only remained a few days, merely long enough to 
gain the Indulgence. This lady, and numbers of other women, 
were only brought to Rome — where they must have seen so 
much to grieve them — by genuine piety. What the German 
knight, A. von Harff, thought, in the year 1497, of the Rome 
of the Borgias has already been told. A similar impression 
is conveyed in the words of a Rhinelander who had been in 
Cardinal Briconnet's service, retailed by Vettori. " If you ask 
me why I left Rome, I answer that we Rhinelanders are good 
Christians, and have read and heard that the Christian faith 
has been founded on the blood of the martyrs, and good 
morals and many miracles, so that it would be impossible for 
any one who lived here to become an unbeliever. But I spent 
several years in Rome and saw the lives led by the Prelates 
and dignitaries, and had I staid there any longer I should have 
been in danger not only of losing my faith, but of becoming 
an Epicurean and doubting the immortality of my soul." — Dr. 
Pastor's History of the Popes', Vol. V L, p. 151. 

In Relation to Pope Alexander VI. Gold Again. 

Receipts from the Jubilee . . Sigismondo says, former 
Popes such as Nicholas V. and Sixtus V. . . employed in re- 
storing and adorning the churches of Rome. . . In December 
(1500) the Jubilee in Rome was prolonged until the Feast of 
the Epiphany and extended first to the whole of Italy, and 
then to the whole of Christendom. According to these Bulls, 
all Christians living at a distance from Rome might, in the fol- 
lowing year, gain the great Indulgence without visiting the 
city, by fulfilling certain conditions and paying a certain sum. 
The Pope left all moneys collected in Venetian territory in 
the hands of the- Republic for the war against the Turks. The 
same thing was done in Poland, though there the money was 
not employed for the purpose specified. In Italy, Caesar 
(Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI.) had the effrontery to 
appropriate the jubilee moneys on his own authority. The 
Florentine historian Nardi relates how his emissaries ap- 
peared in Florence and demanded the money in the Jubilee 
chest, " to enable him to pay the soldiers who were plundering 
us, and it was no small sum." The knowledge that these things 



142 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

were done goes a good way towards explaining the resistance 
which those who were commissioned to preach the Jubilee 
Indulgences met with in Switzerland as well as in Germany. 
Cardinal Peraudi had to put up with all sorts of harassing 
restrictions in the (German) empire, and to undertake that all 
the money there collected should be handed over untouched to 
the administration for the Crusade. — Dr. Pastor's History of 
the Popes, Vol. VI., pp. 152-154. 

Indulgence Graft and Luther. 

Dr. Pastor will, perhaps, treat at length the subject of 
Indulgences in his forthcoming volumes ; I wish they were now 
in print. He has already said, and I have just quoted it, " Ac- 
cording to these Bulls, all Christians living at a distance from 
Rome might, in the following year, gain the great Indulgence 
without visiting the city, by fulfilling certain conditions and 
paying a certain sum." The gravest abuses characterized the 
procuring of Indulgences, and the handling of the receipts. 
Dr. Pastor himself says, and I have already so quoted him, 
that certain Jubilee or Indulgence moneys were misappro- 
priated, and that " the knowledge that these things were done 
goes a good way towards explaining the resistance which 
those who were commissioned to preach the Jubilee Indul- 
gence met with in Switzerland as well as in Germany." (See 
again Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. VI., pp. 152- 
154). Let us see what Catholic historians have to say on our 
present topic ! 

It was at this time (about 15 12) that Indulgences were 
published in Germany by the authority of the munificent and 
splendid Leo. X., the proceeds of which were to be applied 
to the building of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, commenced 
by Julius II. The office of publishing the indulgences was 
given to the Elector Albert, a prince of the house of Branden- 
burg, Archbishop of Merits and Madgeburg, and administra- 
tor of the diocese of Halberstadt, who was as extravagant 
and as fond of magnificent displays as Leo himself. Albert 
selected the Dominican Tetzel of Leipsic to preach the indul- 
gences to the people of his diocese. A ripe scholar and a fine 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 143 

popular speaker, Tetzel proclaimed the efficacy of indulgences 
in language at once ardent and energetic, which while at 
times sufficiently offensive to call forth expressions of hostility 
against both the man and his mission, was by no means so in- 
temperate or extravagant as his enemies would have us be- 
lieve. As the civil and ecclesiastical authorities had but re- 
cently enacted measures restricting the sale of indulgences, 
the recent publication of them gave no little offense. In the 
year 1500, the electoral princes entered a protest against their 
publication, and enacted in 15 10 that sums of money arising 
from this source should not be sent out of the country. The 
emperor Maximilian was at special pains to see that the latter 
provision was faithfully executed. John, Bishop of Meissen, 
had also issued a prohibition, cautioning any one in his dio- 
cese against receiving the preachers of indulgences ; and a 
similar prohibition had been published in the diocese of Con- 
stance. Luther, therefore, was not the first to protest against 
the flagrant abuses incident to putting indulgences on sale ; 
but had he been, no blame could have attached to him, for 
he would have been only exercising a right which he had in 
virtue of his offices of preacher, confessor, and doctor of the- 
ology. So also, when, by the advice of his friends, he affixed 
his famous ninety-five propositions to the doors of the church 
attached to the castle of Wittenberg, on the Vigil of All Saints 
(October 31, 15 17), he did no more than what was sanctioned 
by the usage of that age. It would seem that he might claim 
the greater right to do so, inasmuch as he openly proclaimed 
the doctrine of indulgences, saying in his seventy-first proposi- 
tion : ' Whosoever speaks against the truths of papal indul- 
gences, let him he anathema; " and protested that it was not 
his wish or purpose to say aught against Holy Writ or the 
teachings of the Popes and the Fathers of the Church. No 
fault, therefore, could be found with him for having de- 
nounced whatever was really extravagant 'and excessive in 
the preaching of indulgences, and for having called for some 
authoritative settlement of the question, of which, as he after- 
ward confessed, " he knew no more at that time than those 
who came to inquire of him." That he was sadly in need of 
some elementary instruction on the nature of indulgences, 
their conditions and effects, is painfully evident from the 
grotesque character and intemperate language of many of 
his propositions. In his twenty-ninth proposition Luther asks : 



144 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

" Who knows if every soul would desire to be delivered from 
purgatory ? ' Again, in his eighty-second : " Why does not 
the Pope, since he may open heaven to so many for a few 
wretched florins, of his sacred charity empty purgatory of 
the suffering souls confined there ? " — Dr. Alzog's Manual 
of Universal Church History, Vol. III., pp. 10-13. 

The great applause that greeted the appearance of Luther's 
propositions revealed the intense indignation everywhere 
evoked by the abuse of indulgences. Within the short in- 
terval of two months, they were known in almost every coun- 
try of Europe. — Dr. Alzog's Manual of Universal Church 
History, Vol. III., pp. 14, 15. 

That no one might have a pretext to plead ignorance of 
the true teaching of the Roman Church on indulgences, Leo, 
in a bull issued November 9, 15 18, and beginning Cum post- 
quam, gave the fullest instruction on the doctrine, and threat- 
ened such as should gainsay it with excommunication latee 
sententice. About the same time, the Pope sent the accom- 
plished Saxon, Charles of Militz, to Germany, for the two- 
fold purpose of decorating the Elector Frederic with the 
golden rose and the securing him in the interest of the Holy 
See ; and of restraining Luther by peaceful measures until 
such time as the German bishops should have put an end to 
the quarrel. The Apostolic nuncio while traveling through 
Germany heard much complaint of the evil effects of Tetzel's 
preaching, and in consequence sharply rebuked the Dominican 
for indiscreet zeal. Tetzel took the reprimand so much to 
heart that he withdrew to a monastery, fell sick, and died, it 
is said, of grief, July 14, 15 19. — Dr. Alzog's Manual of Uni- 
versal Church History, Vol. III., pp. 20, 21. 

The bull " Exsurge Domme et judica causam tuam" was 
issued June 15, 1520, in which forty-one propositions, ex- 
tracted from the writings of Luther, were condemned, his 
works ordered to be burnt wherever found, and he himself ex- 
communicated if he should not have retracted at the expira- 
tion of sixty days. The Pope exhorted and prayed him and 
his followers by the Blood of Christ, shed for the redemption 
of man and the foundation of the Church, to cease to disturb 
the peace of the spouse of Christ, to destroy her unity, and 
outrage her sacred and unchangeable truths. But should he 
disregard these entreaties, refuse to avail himself of this pater- 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 1 45 

nal kindness and tenderness, and persist in his errors, he was 
declared excommunicate, liable to the penalties attached to 
the crime of heresy, and all Christian princes were instructed 
to apprehend him and send him to Rome. The execution of 
this Bull was given to the Papal Legates, Carraccioli and Ale- 
andro, and to these Dr. Eck was joined. That one like Eck, 
holding no superior rank as a churchman, should have been 
made a member of this commission of itself gave no little of- 
fense. But apart from this, he had been and was still Luther's 
most formidable and implacable enemy ; and he was now the 
bearer of his sentence. — Dr. Alzogs Manual of Universal 
Church History, Vol. II L, p. jj. 

The Elector of Saxony, who had come as far as the Rhine 
to welcome the Emperor on his arrival, had a conference with 
Erasmus ("the guest of popes and princes") at Cologne, in 
the course of which the latter gave it as his opinion that Lu- 
ther's fault chiefly consisted in his having aimed a blow at 
the tiara of the Pope and the bellies of the monks. — Dr. Al- 
zog's Manual of Universal Church History, I ol. III., p. 55. 

Luther, now spurning papal prohibitions, and notably that 
of Paul II. in the bull Exsecrabilis, and without waiting for 
an answer from Leo, appealed (November 17, 1520), on the 
authority of the decrees of Constance, declaring a Council 
superior to the Pope, from the Holy See to an Ecumenical 
Synod; after having previously published on the 4th of the 
same month his violent protest " Against the Execrable Bull 
of Antichrist." Not content with these bold and aggressive 
acts, he went still further, and on December 10, i5°o, having 
called together the students of the University and the inhabit- 
ants of Wittenberg at the Elster or Eastern Gate of the city, 
where fagots had been heaped up, ready to set fire to, he ap- 
peared bearing the bull of Leo, printed in characters large 
enough to be seen by all present. The- Body of Canon Law, 
many scholastic and casuistical works, the controversial writ- 
ings of Eck and Emser, were first cast into the. flames, after 
which Luther flung the Pope's bull into the pile, exclaiming: 
" Thou hast disturbed the Lord's Holy One, therefore shalt 
thou be consigned to fire eternal." . . On the following day 
he addressed the students saying: "It is now full time that 
the Pope himself were burned. My meaning is that the Papal 
Chair, its false teachings and abominations, should be com- 
mitted to the flames." The Emperor, sensible that matters 



I46 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

were going from bad to worse, convoked his first diet at 
Worms. — Dr. Alzog's Manual of Universal Church History, 
Vol. III., p. 36. 

The Emperor had at first intended to summon Luther be- 
fore the diet. Aleandro (Papal Legate) objected, because to 
submit to the discussion of a secular court questions which 
had been already disposed of by the Holy See and their author 
excommunicated, he regarded as disgraceful. . He demanded 
that the provisions of the bull against Luther should be fully 
carried out (January 3, 1521). . . The States, however, re- 
fused to yield to Aleandro's demand; for having themselves 
brought forward one hundred and one grievances touching 
abuses in ecclesiastical affairs, they were unwilling to con- 
demn Luther without a hearing. Moreover, George, Duke of 
Saxony, a determined enemy of Luther's, brought before the 
diet twelve specific complaints, including some against the 
abuse of indulgences and the lax morals of the clergy. He 
also strenuously advocated the holding of an Ecumenical Coun- 
cil. — Dr. Alzog's Manual of Universal Church History, Vol. 
HI., p. 37- 

Luther went before the imperial diet (at Worms), where 
the Emperor was present, on the 17th and 18th of April 
(1521). On the former of these days, John von Eck, Chan- 
cellor to the Archbishop of Treves (and a member of the papal 
commission), pointing to close upon twenty volumes placed 
upon a table near by, asked Luther, first, if he acknowledged 
himself the author of these writings published under his name ; 
and, secondly, if he was willing to retract the teachings con- 
tained therein. After hearing the titles of the books read, 
Luther, in answer to the first question, admitted their author- 
ship, but requested time for consideration before answering 
the second. A day was given him to prepare his reply, and 
on the morrow the Chancellor again asked him if he would 
retract. Luther was evasive. The Chancellor pressed for a 
categorical answer. " Will you or will you not retract ? " said 
he, addressing him. Luther replied : " Inasmuch as it is cer- 
tain that both Popes and Councils have time and again fallen 
into error, and denied at one time what they had affirmed at 
another, I can not bring myself to put faith in them. My con- 
science is captive to the words of God, and unless I shall be 
convicted of error by Scripture proof or by plain reason, I 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 147 

neither can nor will retract anything. God help me. Amen." 
. . On the 26th of May when many of the States had already, 
as it seemed unadvisedly, withdrawn from the diet, an im- 
perial decree drawn up by Aleandro, and dated May 8th, plac- 
ing Luther under the ban of the Empire, was signed by the 
Emperor, and officially promulgated. . The decree command- 
ed all persons, under severe penalties, to refuse hospitality to 
Luther ; to seize his person, and deliver him up to the officers 
of the Empire, and to commit his writings to the flames. . It 
was now very generally believed that there was an end of the 
heresy ; that the last act of the tragedy had been performed, 
but a few far-seeing men thought otherwise, and predicted 
that the storm, far from having spent itself, was still gathering 
strength. ' There is, as some think, an end of the tragedy," 
wrote the Spanish courtier, Alphonso Valdez, to his friend 
Peter Martyr, ' k but as for myself I am fully convinced that 
the play is only opening, for the Germans are highly incensed 
against the Holy See." . . . The edict of Worms was feebly 
executed if at all. It was coldly received by the representa- 
tives of the States of Germany, who had been industriously 
taught to believe that this theological quarrel was no more 
than a struggle against Rome, in the destruction of whose 
claims they fancied they saw the realization of wild dreams 
and delusive hopes. (Foot-note) : When the Papal Legate, 
Chieregati, remarked that if Hungary should be lost, Germany 
would also pass under the yoke of the Turk, the malcontents 
replied: " We had much rather be under the Turk than under 
you, who are the last and greatest of God's enemies, and are 
the very slave of abomination." — Dr. Alzog's Manual of Uni- 
versal Church History, Vol. III., pp. 38, 40, 41. 

On " The General Causes of the Rapid Spread of Protes- 
tantism '' Dr. Alzog says, among other things : 

Luther's efforts received a color of recognition and sup- 
port from the serious complaints which had been made in gen- 
eral councils, with a view to the correction of existing abuses. 
Many well-meaning bishops had spoken out in no faltering 
terms against abuses of every kind, and chiefly against those 
of indulgences ; and hence when Luther reechoed their lan- 
guage, he was listened to with approval. — Dr. Alzog's Man- 
ual of Universal Church History, Vol. III., pp. 291, 292. 



I48 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

(Germany was) abandoned to the heresy of Luther chiefly 
through the ignorance and immorality of the clergy. — History 
of St. Ignatius De Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, by Father 
Daniel Bartoli, Vol. II., p. 369. 

Hadrian VI., 1 523-1 534. 

The Reverse of Leo X. Sincerely Religions. Admits Cor- 
ruption of Priests, Prelates and Popes. Inaugurates Re- 
forms. Assails Luther. German States List 101 
Grievances against Rome. Poisoned? 

The character of Hadrian was quite the reverse of that 
of his predecessor, Leo X. Sincerely and deeply religious, a 
true priest, of simple tastes and grave manners, he had in a 
certain sense a horror of the art treasures of ancient Rome, 
regarding them as in a measure tending to revive the idols of 
paganism. His dislike of them, which was emphatic and out- 
spoken, gave great offense to the Romans, who, besides taking 
an enthusiastic pride in the reign of Leo X., had financial rea- 
sons for encouraging the love of pagan art which that reign 
had called forth. The oft-repeated words of Hadrian, that 
" he would have priests for the adornment of churches, 
not churches for the adornment of priests," expressed a line 
of action with which the Romans had little or no sympathy. 
The growing discontent reached its height when the Pope, 
through his legate, Chieregati, Bishop of Teramo, publicly 
proclaimed at the Diet of Number g, that, " impelled alike by 
inclination and duty, he would put forth his best energies to 
bring about all needful reforms, beginning with the papal 
household, the primary source of the evils afflicting the Church, 
to the end, that, as corruption had infected high and low, all 
might mend their lives, and make sure their salvation." But 
while thus frankly avowing the faults of the papacy, and prom- 
ising the correction of these and other abuses, the Pope soon 
learned that it was not in his power to hasten the march of 
events, or to shorten the time necessary to such a work. Ful- 
ly persuaded that only the ignorant could be led astray by the 
crude and irrational teachings of Luther, and that the revolt 
against the old faith was to be mainly ascribed to the burdens 
and hardships endured by the bulk of the people, he enter- 
tained the hope that this frank avowal of the existence of evil • 
and the promise of its correction, coming from the common 
father of Christendom, would have the effect of allaying popu- 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 149 

lar discontent, of conciliating and inspiring confidence in the 
minds of all. In this frame of mind he pressed the Diet to 
take prompt and vigorous measures against Luther, ' For," 
said he, with prophetic foresight, ' the revolt, now directed 
against the spiritual authority, will shortly deal a blow at the 
temporal also." The words, of the Pontiff were ill received 
by the Diet, and his warning unheeded ; his frank avowal of 
the shortcomings of the papacy gave occasion to exhibitions 
of unseemly triumph, and his promise of reform was inter- 
preted as an acceptance of defeat. The hundred and one 
grievances against the Holy See were again taken up ; and the 
convocation of an ecumenical council, to convene in some city 
in Germany, imperiously demanded ; which should, in the first 
instance, provide for the general well-being of the Church, 
and, this accomplished, settle the Lutheran controversy. Thus 
far, said the assembled States, it has been found impossible 
to enforce the edict placing Luther under the ban of the Em- 
pire, from fear of a popular insurrection. However, they fal- 
teringly added, every effort will be put forth to prevent the 
propagation, either orally or in writing, of the new doctrines, 
until such time as the council shall have convened ; and to 
•sustain the authority of such bishops as shall punish married 
ecclesiastics with canonical penalties. The Nuncio, clearly 
perceiving that the temper of the States was hostile to Rome, 
and mortified at the ill success of his mission, withdrew from 
the Diet ; and Hadrian, equally cognizant of their sinister de- 
signs, gave expression to his sorrow in words of reproachful 
tenderness, in which, while laying bare the deep and intense 
grief that crushed his paternal heart, he seemed to take upon 
himself the responsibility of all the faults committed by his 
predecessors. Hadrian, however, did more than utter words 
of complaint. Desirous of putting an end to the system of 
wasteful extravagance that had grown up under his prede- 
cessors, he dismissed a large number of useless functionaries, 
therebv exciting against himself a spirit of intense hostility. 
To add to the bitterness of his grief he learned that his ef- 
forts to defend the island of Rhodes (December 25, 1522) 
against the assaults of the Turks, had proved unsuccessful. 
The disastrous issue of all his most cherished projects was too 
much for the tender heart of the holy Pontiff, and he grad- 
ually sunk under the weight of accumulated sorrows. " How 
sad," said he in his last moments, " is the condition of a Pope 



150 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

who would do good but can not." On the very day of his 
death (September 14, 1523), the Romans gave expression to 
unseemly joy, in a coarse inscription placed above the dooi 
of his attending physician. (Dr. Alzog omits giving this 
inscription.) (Foot-note:) The epitaph composed by his 
friends, and inscribed on his tomb, does him justice: " Here 
lies Hadrian VI., who held that to rule is the greatest of mis- 
fortunes." — Dr. Alzog's Manual of Universal Church His- 
tory, Vol. III., pp. 44-4/. 

The inscription placed above the physician's door was 
this : " To the liberator of his country." Did the physician 
poison the good Pope, Hadrian VI. ? 

Paul III., 1534-1549. 
Trafficked in his Sister's Shame. 

(His sister was a mistress of Pope Alexander VI.) 
Rumors of this scandalous connection penetrated into Ger- 
many; and, later, it came to be so universally believed that 
Paul III. was openly taunted with the way in which his Car- 
dinalate had come to him. — Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, 
Vol. V., pp. 416-418. 

In other words, Paul III. secured his Cardinal's hat by 
winking at his sister's adultery with Pope Alexander VI. 

In 1538 the Pope, Paul the Third, published a bull of ex- 
communication and deposition against Henry the Eighth. — 
Green's History of the English People, Vol. II. , p. 194. 

Henry the Eighth was the King of England under whom 
the Protestant Church of England came into existence. He 
had written a bitter attack upon Martin Luther, and for this 
service he received from Pope Leo X. the title " Defender of 
the Faith." At a later time he determined to divorce his 
Queen, Catherine of Aragon, and marry Anne Boleyn, but the 
Holy See would not dissolve the marriage. The King would 
not abandon his purpose, and out of this clash came the separa- 
tion of the English nation from the See of Rome, and the 
formation of the Church of England. 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. I5I 

Catholic writers never tire of asserting that the Church of 
England owes its origin to the adultery of Henry the Eighth, 
who was excommunicated by Paul III., but they are discreetly 
silent about the fact that Paul III. obtained his ecclesiastical 
preferment by winking at his own sister's adultery with Pope 
Alexander VI. 

Innocent X., 1644-1655. 
Lady Olympia. 

There was another and more serious subject of complaint 
against Innocent, namely, the influence which, it was well 
known, Olympia Maldachina, his brother's widow, exercised 
in the affairs of the Church. While it is a fact, admitted on 
all hands, that his morals were above reproach, his conduct 
in this particular cannot be wholly excused. — Dr. Alzog's 
Manual of Universal Church History, Vol. III., p. 368. 

It is not " admitted on all hands that his morals were 
above reproach." 

Alexander VII., 1655-1667. 

Nepotism. Extravagance. 

He called his grasping relations to Rome, and when he 
appeared in public it was with a pomp and splendor such as 
had never before been witnessed or even thought of in that 
city of magnificent displays. . . Alexander erected many mag- 
nificent structures, which largely contributed to the embellish- 
ment of Rome. . The costliness of these and other improve- 
ments, together with the rapacity of his relatives, exhausted 
his resources, and led to financial embarrassment. — Dr. Alzog's 
Manual of Universal Church History, Vol. III., pp. 479, 481. 

Alexander VIII., 1 689-1691. 

Nepotism. 

The memory of Alexander has unfortunately suffered 
much from the misconduct of his nephews, to whom, on ac- 
count of his advanced age, he allowed a large share in the 
government. — Dr. Alzog's Manual of Universal Church His- 
tory, Vol. III., p. 484. 



152 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Benedict XIIL, 1724-1730. 
A Reforming Pope. Clerical Corruption. 

Shortly after his election he published various sumptuary 
regulations, restricting the luxurious habits of the cardinals, 
prescribing modesty of dress to the clergy, etc. A council 
convoked by him in the Lateran palace (1725) made many 
wise enactments for the suppression of scandals and abuses. . 
Benedict was unfortunate in taking into his confidence Car- 
dinal Coscia, by whose simulated piety he was deceived, and 
by whose abuse of power and influence the Church was dis- 
honored and he himself enriched. — Dr. Alzog's Manual of 
Universal Church History, Vol III., pp. 487, 488. 

Benedict XIV., 1 740-1 758. 

Disordered Finances. 

He at once applied himself to restore the finances from the 
disordered condition into which they had fallen, owing to the 
extravagance into which Benedict XIIL had been driven by 
Cardinal Coscia, and the enormous sums expended by Clement 
XII. on public buildings. — Dr. Alzog's Manual of Universal 
Church History, Vol. III., p. 489. 

Pius IX., 1846-1878. 
An Infidel Secretary of State. 

Cardinal Antonelli was Secretarv of State for Pius IX. 
When he was dying he refused the sacraments, saying that 
he never believed in their efficacy. He said he had served the 
Pope faithfully in his official capacity, but that he did not be- 
lieve in the spiritual powers claimed by the Church. 

After his death his wife and children came forward and 
claimed his estate and got it. 

Pius X., 1903 — 
The Cardinals. 

In The Catholic Citizen, published at Milwaukee, Wis- 
consin, in its issue of July 16, 1904, appeared the following 
on its front page : 



board of education. 153 

Cardinals' Income Cut. 

Ever since he succeeded the late Pope Leo, Pius X. has 
tried to cut down the expenses of the Holy See, a policy which 
has made him anything but popular amongst the cardinals of 
Rome. 

A few days ago he announced his intention of cutting off 
an annual amount of 23,000 francs which it had been custom- 
ary to pay to every cardinal residing in Rome. The majority 
of these cardinals have various other sources of income besides 
their residences, which are paid for by the Church. 

Pope Pius X. now intends to have all the cardinals reside 
in the Vatican proper, where there is ample room, and in this 
way save the high rental which now has u> be paid for man- 
sions for the cardinals in the city of Rome. 

Several of the cardinals are protesting against this, and 
say that it would not be proper for them all to live in the same 
building, as it would detract from their dignity, and also ob- 
ject to the cutting down of their income. 

A very prominent cardinal said : ' It costs about 35,000 
francs to be made a cardinal, and many a cardinal has died 
without succeeding in paying off debts which he has incurred 
to meet this expense." 

The above, it will be noted, is from a Catholic authority. 
Why should it cost " 35,000 francs (about $8,000.00) to be 
made a cardinal " ? Why should they live in mansions and not 
in the Vatican? Why should they object to cutting down the 
expenses of the Holy See? 

Many of the Princes of the Church to-day are best de- 
scribed in the words used by Dr. Alzog, the great Catholic 
historian, concerning prelates of an olden time : 

They are vain and arrogant courtiers, lovers of fine liv- 
ing and pompous display, and much given to usury ; they make 
their faith subservient to schemes of worldly wealth and am- 
bition, and entirely neglect the care of their churches ; they 
visit the great ones of the world and the wealthy, but seldom 
the poor and the lowly; they have neither simplicity, love of 
God, nor chastity, and the celebration of Holy Mass and the 
preaching of the Word of God have ceased to be objects of 
their solicitude; in short, their entire life is one uninterrupted 



154 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

scandal. — Dr. Alzog's Manual of Universal Church History, 
Vol. II., p. 929. 

THE VATICAN ASSAILS AMERICANISMS, 

The Declaration of American Independence asserts hu- 
man equality : Rome denies it. The Constitution of the Unit- 
ed States proclaims the sovereignty of the people; it prohibits 
any union of Church and State ; and it guarantees freedom of 
conscience, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Rome 
repudiates the sovereignty of the people; She demands the 
union of Church and State, and proclaims Herself to be the 
Church to the exclusion of all others ; and she condemns free- 
dom of conscience, freedom of speech and freedom of the 
press. The non-sectarian public school has become an Amer- 
ican institution, and is championed by the vast majority of 
the American people. " The little red schoolhouse " represents 
an Americanism just as much as any one of the constitutional 
provisions which I have named. Rome condemns the non- 
sectarian school and asserts that the control of the education 
of the nation's youth belongs solely to Her. The United 
States Constitution has been regarded by the fathers and build- 
ers of American institutions as a priceless document, and not 
only a boon to Americans but a blessing to mankind : Rome 
condemns liberties which the Constitution of the United States 
guarantees. Does the parochial school teach these American- 
isms or Vaticanisms? 

If it teaches these Americanisms it is false to Rome : if it 
teaches these Vaticanisms it is false to America. 

That my readers may see that I am not misstating these 
Americanisms or Vaticanisms I now show the former by ex- 
cerpts from the charters of American liberties, recognized 
American history, and the most solemn declarations of each 
occupant of the American Presidential Chair; and the latter 
by excerpts from the Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII. 



board of education. 155 

Americanisms. 

Hitman Equality. 

I quote the following from the Declaration of American 
Independence: 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are 
created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with 
certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights gov- 
ernments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers 
from the consent of the governed. (Ridpath's History of the 
United States, 1889, P- 736.) 

The great American historian, George Bancroft, honored 
at his death by the half-masting of " the flags of all the Execu- 
tive Departments at Washington," " as an expression of the 
public loss and sorrow," and called by the President " One of 
the most distinguished Americans," as appears from page 164, 
volume IX of the " Messages and Papers of the Presidents," 
has this to say about the Declaration of Independence : 

This immortal state paper was " the genuine effusion of 
the soul of the country at that time," the revelation of its mind, 
when, in its youth, its enthusiasm, its sublime confronting pf 
danger, it rose to the highest creative powers of which man is 
capable. The bill of rights which it promulgates is of rights 
that are older than human institutions, and spring from the 
eternal justice. Two political theories divided the world: one 
founded the commonwealth on the advantage of the state, the 
policy of expediency, the other on the immutable principles 
of morals ; the new republic, as it took its place among the 
powers of the world proclaimed its faith in the truth and reali- 
ty and unchangeableness of freedom, virtue and right. The 
heart of Jefferson in writing the declaration, and of congress 
in adopting it, beat for all humanity ; the assertion of right was 
made for the entire world of mankind and all coming genera- 
tions, without any exception whatever ; for the proposition 
which admits of exceptions can never be self-evident. (Ban- 
croft's History of the United States, Vol. IV, p. 450.) 



I56 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

The Sovereignty of the People. 

I quote as follows from the Constitution of the United 
States: 

We, the People of the United States, in order to form 
a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tran- 
quility, provide for the common defence, promote the general 
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the 
United States of North America. (Ridpath's History of the 
United States, p. 745). 

Freedom of Conscience, Speech and Press. 

The First Amendment to the Constitution reads as fol- 
lows: 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment 
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or abridg- 
ing the freedom of speech or of the press ; or the right of the 
people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government 
for a redress of grievances. (Id. p. 753.) 

This Amendment was ratified December 15, 1791, but a 
few months following the ratification of the Constitution it- 
self by the several States. 

This is what Rev. P. A. Baart, a Roman Catholic canon- 
ist and author, says in his " Tenure of Catholic Church Prop- 
erty in the United States of America: " 

Section 19. Each of the thirteen colonies, before the 
revolution of 1776, recognized some form of Protestantism 
as its state church, and several levied taxes for the support 
of the authorized worship. To prevent contention, the con- 
stitution of the United States, in its first amendment, pro- 
hibits the recognition of a state religion, though it intends that 
all forms of Christianity shall be protected from disturbance 
in worship and in property. Because of this constitutional 
prohibition, the government of the United States does not 
recognize the Catholic Church as such, nor can the Church 
as such become incorporated. 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 157 

History of the Establishment of Freedom of Conscience in 

America. 

In the History of the United States by George Bancroft, 
'* the author's last revision," 1888, there is a special chapter 
on the " Constitution of the States." Each American State, 
of course, has its own Constitution, which embodies the prin- 
ciples of the Constitution of the Federal Government, or con- 
tains nothing antagonistic to them. In his history Mr. Ban- 
croft writes concerning the Constitutions of our original 
States. He says : 

For more than two centuries the humbler Protestant 
sects had sent up the cry to heaven for freedom to worship 
God. To the panting for this freedom half the American 
states owed their existence, and all but one or two their in- 
crease in free population. The immense majority of the in- 
habitants of the thirteen colonies were Protestant dissenters ; 
and, from end to end of their continent, from the rivers of 
Maine and the hills of New Hampshire to the mountain val- 
leys of Tennessee and the borders of Georgia, one voice called 
to the other that there should be no connection of the Church 
with the State, no establishment of any one form of religion by 
the civil power ; that " all men have a natural and unalienable 
right to worship God according to the dictates of their own con- 
-sciences and understandings." With this great idea the colonies 
nad travailed for a century and a half ; and now, not as revolu- 
tionary, not as destructive, but simply as giving utterance to 
the thought of the nation, the states stood up in succession, in 
the presence of one another and before God and the world, 
to bear their witness in favor of restoring independence to 
conscience and the mind. The establishment of liberty of con- 
science, which brought with it liberty of speech and of the 
press, was, in the several states, the fruit not of philosophy, 
but of the love of Protestantism for the open (Bible). . . But 
from the beginning the Church no longer formed a part of the 
State ; and religion, ceasing to be a servant of the government 
or an instrument of dominion, became a life in the soul. Pub- 
lic worship was voluntarily sustained. Nowhere was perse- 
cution for religious opinion so nearly at an end as in America, 
and nowhere was there so religious a people. (Bancroft's 
History of the United States, Vol. V., pp. 1 19-122.) 



T58 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

AMERICANISMS ENUNCIATED BY ALL OF THE 
AMERICAN PRESIDENTS. 

From the beginning of our Government until the present 
year (1904) twenty-five different men have filled the Presi- 
dential Chair. 

They each entered upon the discharge of the grave duties 
of the Chief Magistracy under the sanction of a solemn oath 
to support and defend the Constitution of the Nation. Their 
messages to Congress and proclamations abound in references 
to fundamental Americanisms. From this long line of dis- 
tinguished American patriots, I quote : 

George Washington, k< the Father of his Country," — presi- 
dent 1 789- 1 797. 

Resist any Innovation upon American Principles. 

Toward the preservation of your Government and the 
permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite not only 
that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its 
acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the 
spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the 
pretext. One method of assault may be to effect in the forms 
of the Constitution alterations which will impair the energy 
of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly 
overthrown. (Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. 
L, p. 218.) 

John Adams, second president, 1797-1801. 
Venerates the Constitution. 

I first saw the Constitution of the United States in a 
foreign country. Irritated by no literary altercation, animated 
by no public debate, heated by no party animosity, I read it 
with great satisfaction, as the result of good heads prompted 
by good hearts, as an experiment better adapted to the genius, 
character, situation, and relations of this nation and country 
than any which had ever been proposed or suggested. (Id. 
Vol. L, p. 229.) 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 159 

Thomas Jefferson, third president, 1 801-1809, and the idol 

of the Democratic Party. 

Freedom of Conscience and Press. 

(He enumerates what he deems the essential principles 
of our government, and in the list are) the diffusion of in- 
formation and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the 
public reason ; freedom of religion ; freedom of the press. . . 
These principles form the bright constellation which has gone 
before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution 
and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and the blood of 
our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should 
be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, 
the touch-stone by which to try the services of those we trust ; 
and should we wander from them in moments of error or 
alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road 
which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety. (Id. Vol. I., 
pp. 323, 324.) 

James Madison, fourth president, 1809-18 17. 

Free Conscience and Free Press. 

To support the Constitution, which is the cement of the 
Union, as well in its limitations as in its authorities ; . . to 
avoid the slightest interference with the rights of conscience 
or the functions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil 
jurisdiction; to preserve in their full energy the other salu- 
tary provisions in behalf of private and personal rights, and 
of the freedom of the press ; . . to favor the advancement of 
science and the diffusion of information as the best aliment 
to true liberty — as far as sentiments and intentions such as 
these can aid the fulfillment of my duty, they will be a re- 
source which cannot fail me. (Id. Vol. I., pp. 467, 468.) 

James Monroe, fifth president, 1817-1825, — the author of the 

" Monroe Doctrine." 

Equality. Sovereignty of the People. 

In this great nation there is but one order, that of the 
people, whose power, by a peculiarly happy improvement of 
the representative principle, is transferred from them, with- 
out impairing in the slightest degree their sovereignty, to 



l60 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

bodies of their own creation, and to persons elected by them- 
selves, in the full extent necessary for all the purposes of free, 
enlightened, and efficient government. (Id. Vol. II., p. 93.) 

John Quincy Adams, sixth president, 1825-1829. 
No Union of Church and State. 

In 1825, referring to the Congress of American nations 
to be assembled at Panama, he wrote : 

There is yet another subject upon which, without enter- 
ing into any treaty, the moral influence of the United States 
may perhaps be exerted with beneficial consequences at such 
a meeting — the advancement of religious liberty. Some of the 
southern nations are even yet so far under the dominion of 
prejudice that they have incorporated with their political con- 
stitutions an exclusive church (the Roman Catholic), with- 
out toleration of any other than the dominant sect. The aban- 
donment of this last badge of religious bigotry and oppres- 
sion may be pressed more effectually by the united exertions 
of those who concur in the principles of freedom of conscience 
upon those who are yet to be convinced of their justice and 
wisdom than by the solitary efforts of a minister to any one of 
the separate Governments. (Id. Vol. II., p. 319.) 

Andrew Jackson, seventh president, 1829-1837. 

Free Conscience and Free Press. 

As long as our government is administered for the good 
of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it 
secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of 
conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending. (Id. 
Vol. II., p. 438.) 

Martin VanBuren, eighth president, 1837-1841. 

The People the Source of Power. Church and State. 

The national will is the supreme law of the republic. (Id. 
Vol. III., p. 380.) 

It was reserved for the American Union to test the ad- 
vantages of a government entirely dependent on the contin- 
ual exercise of the popular will, and our experience has shown 
that it is as beneficent in practice as it is just in theory. . . 
In no country has education been so widely diffused. . . All 



/ 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. l6l 

forms of religion have united for the first time to diffuse char- 
ity and piety, because for the first time in the history of na- 
tions all have been totally untrammeled and absolutely free. 
(Id. Vol. III., p. 484- ) 

William Henry Harrison, ninth president, March 4 to 

April 4, 1 84 1. 

No Government by Divine Right. Free Conscience, Speech 

- and Press. 

The broad foundation upon which our Constitution rests 
being the people — a breath of their's having made, as a breath 
can unmake, change, or modify it — it can be assigned to none 
of the great divisions of government but to that of democracy. 
. . We admit of no government by divine right, believing that 
so far as power is concerned the Beneficent Creator has made 
no distinction amongst men ; that all are upon an equality, 
and that the only legitimate right to govern is an express 
grant of power from the governed. . . The boasted privilege 
of a Roman citizen was to him a shield only against a petty 
provincial ruler. . . Far different is the power of our sover- 
eignty. It can interfere with no one's faith, prescribe forms 
of worship for no one's observance, inflict no punishment but 
after well-ascertained guilt under rules prescribed by the Con- 
stitution itself. These precious privileges, and those scarcely 
less important of giving expression to his thoughts and opin- 
ions, either by writing or speaking, unrestrained but by the 
liability for injury to others, and that of a full participation 
in all the advantages which flow from the Government, the 
acknowledged property of all, the American citizen derives 
from no charter granted by his fellow-man. 

The maxim which our ancestors derived from the mother 
country that ' freedom of the press is the great bulwark of 
civil and religious liberty " is one of the most precious legacies 
which they have left us. (Id. Vol. IV., pp. 6-20.) 

John Tyler, tenth president, 1841-1845. 

Popular Sovereignty. Foreigners Must Become Americanized. 

Personal Liberties. 

The institutions under which we live, my countrymen, 
secure each person in the perfect enjoyment of all his rights. 



l62 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

The spectacle is exhibited to the world of a government de- 
riving its powers from consent of the governed and having 
imparted to it only so much power as is necessary for its suc- 
cessful operations. (Id. Vol. IV., p. 39.) • 

The census recently taken shows . . our numbers . . al- 
ready exceed 17,000,000. . . We hold out to the people of 
other countries an invitation to come and settle among us as 
members of our rapidly growing family, and for the blessings 
which we offer them we require of them to look upon our 
country as their country and to unite with us in the great task 
of preserving our institutions and thereby perpetuating our 
liberties. (Id. Vol. IV., p. 41.) 

A sacred observance of the guaranties of the Constitu- 
tion will preserve union on a foundation which can not be 
shaken, while personal liberty is placed beyond hazard of 
jeopardy. The guaranty of religious freedom, of the freedom 
of the press, of the liberty of speech, of the trial by jury, of 
the habeas corpus, . . these are the great and important guar- 
anties of the Constitution which the lovers of liberty must 
cherish and the advocates of union must ever cultivate. (Id. 
Vol. IV., p. 336.) 

James K. Polk, eleventh president, 1845-1849. 

Equality. Freedom of Conscience. A Treason to Mankind. 

The inestimable value of our Federal Union is felt and 
acknowledged by all. By this system of united and confed- 
erated States our people are permitted collectively and indi- 
vidually to seek their own happiness in their own way, and 
the consequences have been most auspicious. . Multitudes 
from the old world are flocking to our shores to participate 
in its blessings. Beneath its benign sway peace and pros- 
perity prevail. . All distinctions of birth or of rank have been 
abolished. All citizens, whether native or adopted, are placed 
upon terms of precise equality. All are entitled to equal rights 
and equal protection. No union exists between church and 
state, and perfect freedom of opinion is guaranteed to all sects 
and creeds. . Who shall assign limits to the achievements of 
free minds and free hands under the protection of this glor- 
ious Union ? No treason to mankind since the organization of 
society would be equal in atrocity to that of him who would 
lift his hand to destroy it. (Id. Vol. IV., pp. 375, 376.) 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. I63 

Zachariah Taylor, twelfth president, 1849-1850. 
Most Stable' Government on Earth. 

I this day renew the declarations I have heretofore- made 
and proclaim my fixed determination to maintain to the extent 
of my ability the Government in its original purity and to 
adopt as the basis of my public policy those great republican 
doctrines which constitute the strength of our national ex- 
istence. (Id. Vol. V., p. 5.) 

Sixty years have elapsed since the establishment of this 
Government, and the Congress of the United States again 
assembles to legislate for an empire of freemen. The pre- 
dictions of evil prophets, who formerly pretended to foretell 
the downfall of our institutions, are now remembered only 
to be derided, and the United States of America at this mo- 
ment present to the world the most stable and permanent 
Government on earth, ( (Id. Vol. V., p. 9.) 

Millard Fillmore, thirteenth president, 1850- 1853. 
Common Schools. Constitution the Best ever Formed. 

We live in an age of progress, and ours is emphatically 
a country of progress. . . The whole country is full of enter- 
prise. Our common schools are diffusing intelligence among 
the people and our industry is fast accumulating the com- 
forts and luxuries of life. This is in part owing to our pecu- 
liar position. . but much of it is also owing to the popular in- 
stitutions under which we live. (Id. Vol. V., p. 181.) 

Our Constitution, though not perfect, is doubtless the best 
that ever was formed. Therefore let every proposition to 
change it be well weighed and, if found beneficial, cautiously 
adopted. Every patriot will rejoice to see its authority so ex- 
erted as to advance the prosperity and honor of the nation, 
whilst he will watch with jealousy any attempt to mutilate 
this charter of our liberties or pervert its powers to acts of 
aggression or injustice. (Id. Vol. V., p. 182.) 

Franklin Pierce, fourteenth president, 1853- 1857. 
America, a Beacon Light to the World. 

It is no paradox to say that although comparatively weak 
the new-born nation was intrinsically strong. . . The op- 



164 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

pressed throughout the world from that day to the present 
have turned their eyes hitherward, not to find those lights 
extinguished or to fear lest they should wane, but to be con- 
stantly cheered by their steady and increasing radiance. In 
this our country has, in my judgment, thus far fulfilled its 
highest duty to suffering humanity. It has spoken and will 
continue to speak, not only by its words, but by its acts, the 
language of sympathy, encouragement, and hope to those who 
earnestly listen to tones which pronounce for the largest 
rational liberty. (Id. Vol. V., pp. 197, 198.) 

James Buchanan, fifteenth president, 1857-1861. 
Richest Political Blessings Heaven Ever Bestowed. 

Convinced that I owe my election to the inherent love for 
the Constitution and the Union which still animates the hearts 
of the American people, let me earnestly ask their powerful 
support in sustaining all just measures calculated to perpet- 
uate these, the richest political blessings which Heaven has 
ever bestowed upon any nation. (Id. Vol. V., pp. 430, 431.) 

Abraham Lincoln, " the Savior of his Country," sixteenth 

president, 186 1- 1865. 

America's Free Institutions. 

It may be affirmed without extravagance that the free 
institutions we enjoy have developed the powers and improved 
the conditions of our whole people beyond any example in 
the world. Of this we now have a striking and an impressive 
illustration. So large an army as the Government has now on 
foot was never before known without a soldier in it but who 
had taken his place there of his own free choice. But more 
than this, there are many single regiments whose members, 
one and another, possess full practical knowledge of all the 
arts, sciences, professions, and whatever else, whether use- 
ful or elegant, is known in the world ; and there is scarcely 
one from which there could not be selected a President, a 
Cabinet, a Congress, and perhaps a court, abundantly com- 
petent to administer the Government itself. Nor do I say this 
is not true also in the army of our late friends, now adver- 
saries in this contest ; but if it is, so much better the reason 
whv the Government which has conferred such benefits on 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 1 65 

both them and us should not be broken up. Whoever in any 
section proposes to abandon such a government would do well 
to consider in deference to what principle it is that he does it; 
what better he is likely to get in its stead ; whether the sub- 
stitute will give, or be intended to give, so much of good to* 
the people. There are some foreshadowings on this subject. 
Our adversaries have adopted some declarations of indepen- 
dence, in which, unlike the good old one penned by Jefferson, 
they omit the words " all men are created equal." Why? 
They have adopted a temporary national constitution, in the 
preamble of which, unlike our good old one signed by Washing- 
ton, they omit " We, the people," and substitute " We, the depu- 
ties of the sovereign and independent States." Why? Why 
this deliberate pressing out of view the rights of men and the 
authority of the people? This is essentially a people's con- 
test. On the side of the Union it is a struggle for maintain- 
ing in the world that form and substance of government whose 
leading object is to elevate the condition of men; to lift arti- 
ficial weights from all shoulders ; to clear the paths of lauda- 
ble pursuit for all ; to afford all an unfettered start and a fair 
chance in the race of life. Yielding to partial and temporary 
departures, from necessity, this is the leading object of the 
Government for whose existence we contend. I am most 
happy to believe that the plain people understand and appre- 
ciate this. It is worthy of note that while in this the Govern- 
ment's hour of trial large numbers of those in the Army and 
Navy who have been favored with the offices have resigned 
and proven false to the hand which had pampered them, not one 
common soldier or common sailor is known to have deserted 
his flag. Great honor is due to those officers who remained 
true despite the example of their treacherous associates ; but 
the greatest honor and most important fact of all is the unani- 
mous firmness of the common soldiers and common sailors. 
To the last man, so far as known, they have successfully re- 
sisted the traitorous efforts of those whose commands but an 
hour before they obeyed as absolute law. This is the patriotic 
instinct of plain people. They understand without an argu- 
ment that the destroying the Government which was made 
by Washington means no good to them. (Id. Vol. VI., pp. 
29» 30-) 



1 66 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Andrew Johnson, seventeenth president, 1865-1869. 

God's Hand in the Framing and Adopting of the Constitution. 

Equality. Education. Free Speech. Religion. 

Popular Sovereignty. 

The union of the United States of America was intended 
by its authors to last as long as the States themselves shall 
last. " The Union shall be perpetual " are the words of the 
Confederation. " To form a more perfect Union," by an or- 
dinance of the people of the United States, is the declared 
purpose of the Constitution. The hand of Divine Providence 
was never more plainly visible in the affairs of men than in the 
framing and adopting of that instrument. . . The ancient re- 
publics absorbed the individual in the state — prescribed his 
religion and controlled his activity. The American system 
rests on the assertion of the equal right of every man to life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to freedom of conscience, 
to the culture and exercise of all his faculties. As a conse- 
quence the State government is limited — as to the General 
Government in the interest of union, as to the individual cit- 
izen in the interest of freedom. (Id. Vol. VI., pp. 353-355.) 

Here more and more care is given to provide education 
for every one born on our soil. Here religion, released from 
political connection with the civil government, refuses to sub- 
serve the craft of statesmen, and becomes in its independence 
the spiritual life of the people. Here toleration is extended 
to every opinion, in the quiet certainty that truth needs only 
a fair field to secure the victory. Here the human mind goes 
forth unshackled in the pursuit of science, to collect stores of 
knowledge and acquire an ever increasing mastery over the 
forces of nature. Here the national domain is offered and 
held in millions of separate freeholds, so that our fellow-cit- 
izens, beyond the occupants of any other part of the earth, 
constitute in reality a people. Here exists the democratic 
form of government ; and that form of government, by the 
confession of European statesmen, " gives a power of which 
no other form is capable, because it incorporates every .man 
with the state and arouses everything that belongs to the soul." 
Where in past history does a parallel exist to the public hap- 
piness which is within the reach of the people of the United 
States? Where in any part of the globe can institutions be 
found so suited to their habits or so entitled to their love as 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. \(fj 

their own free Constitution ? Every one of them, then, in what- 
ever part of the land he has his home, must wish its per- 
petuity. (Id. Vol. VL, p. 370.) 

Ulysses S. Grant, eighteenth president, 1869- 1877. 

Personal Liberties. Free Pulpit, Press and School. The 
States of the Church. Education. 

The country having just emerged from a great rebellion, 
many questions will come before it for settlement. . . This 
requires security of person, property and free religious and 
political opinion in every part of our common country, with- 
out regard to local prejudice. All laws to secure these ends 
will receive my best efforts for their enforcement. (Id. Vol. 
VIL, PP. 6, 7.) 

We are blessed with peace at home . . with facilities for 
every mortal to acquire an education ; with institutions clos- 
ing to none the avenues to fame or any blessing of fortune 
that may be coveted ; with freedom of the pulpit, the press, and 
the school. (Id. Vol. VIL, p. 27.) 

I have been officially informed of the annexation of the 
States of the Church to the Kingdom of Italy, and the re- 
moval of the capital of that Kingdom to Rome. In con- 
formity with the established policy of the United States, I 
have recognized this change. (Id. Vol. VIL, p. 144.) 

I recommend favorable consideration of the plan for unit- 
ing the telegraphic system of the United States with the pos- 
tal system. . . Educatiqn, the groundwork of republican in- 
stitutions, is encouraged by increasing the facilities to gather 
speedy news from all parts of the country. . . The desire to 
reap the benefits of such improvements will stimulate edu- 
cation. (Id. Vol. VIL, p. 150.) 

Rutherford B. Hayes, nineteenth president, 1877-1881. 

Education. Separation of Church and State. 

To education more than to any other agency we are to 
look as the resource for the advancement of the people in 
the requisite knowledge and appreciation of their rights and 
responsibilities as citizens, and I desire to repeat the sugges- 
tion contained in my former message in behalf of the enact- 
ment of appropriate measures by congress for the purpose of 



l68 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

supplementing with national aid the local systems of educa- 
tion in the several States. (Id. Vol. VII., p. 506.) 

The sanctity of marriage and the family relation are the 
corner stone of our American society and civilization. Re- 
ligious liberty and the separation of church and state are 
among the elementary ideas of free institutions. (Id. Vol. 
VII., p. 606.) 

James A. Garfield, twentieth president, March 4, 1881, to 

September 19, 1881. 

The Constitution. 

It is now three days more than a hundred since the adop- 
tion of the first written constitution of the United States — the 
Articles of Confederation. . . The' Colonists were struggling 
not only against the armies of a great nation, but against the 
settled opinions of mankind ; for the world did not then be- 
lieve that the supreme authority of government could be safe- 
ly intrusted to the guardianship of the people themselves. 
We cannot overestimate the fervent love of liberty, the intelli- 
gent courage, and the sum of common sense with which our 
fathers made the great experiment of self-government. When 
they found after a short trial, that the confederacy of States 
was too weak to meet the necessities of a vigorous and ex- 
panding republic, they boldly set it aside, and in its stead 
established a national Union, founded directly upon the will 
of the people. . . Under this Constitution the boundaries of 
freedom have been enlarged, the foundations of order and 
peace have been strengthened, and the growth of our people 
in all the better elements of national life has indicated the wis- 
dom of the founders and given new hope to their descendants. 
(Id. Vol. VIII., p. 7.) 

Chester A. Arthur, twenty-first president, 1881-1885. 

Popular Government. 

For the fourth time in the history of the Republic its 
Chief Magistrate has been removed by death. . . For the 
fourth time the officer elected by the people and ordained by 
the Constitution to fill a vacancy so created is called to as- 
sume the Executive Chair. The wisdom of our fathers, fore- 
seeing even the most dire possibilities, made sure that the 
Government should never be imperiled because of the uncer- 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 1 69 

tainty of human life. Men may die, but the fabrics of our 
free institutions remain unshaken. No higher or more as- 
suring proof could exist of the strength and permanence of 
popular government than the fact that though the chosen of 
the people be struck down his constitutional successor is peace- 
fully installed without shock or strain except the sorrow 
which mourns the bereavement. (Id. Vol. VIII., p. 33.) 

The abundant privileges of freedom which our fathers 
left us in their wisdom are still our increasing heritage. (Id. 
Vol. VIII., p. 36.) 

Grover Cleveland, twenty-second and twenty-fourth pres- 
ident, 1885-1889, 1893-1897. 

Popular Government. The Constitution. 

In the presence of this vast assemblage of my country- 
men I am about to supplement and seal by the oath which I 
shall take the manifestation of the will of a great and free 
people. In the exercise of their power and right of self-gov- 
ernment they have committed to one of their fellow-citizens 
a supreme and sacred trust, • and he here consecrates himself 
to their service. . . Amid the din of party strife the people's 
choice was made, but its attendant circumstances have demon- 
strated new strength and safety of a government by the peo- 
ple. In each succeeding year it more clearly appears that our 
democratic principle needs no apology, and that in its fearless 
and faithful application is to be found the surest guaranty 
of good government. . . But he who takes the oath today 
to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United 
States only assumes the solemn obligation which every patri- 
otic citizen — on the farm, in the workshop, in the busy marts 
of trade, and everywhere— ^should share with him. The Con- 
stitution which prescribes his oath, my countrymen, is yours ; 
the government you have chosen him to administer for 
a time is yours ; the suffrage which executes the will of free- 
men is yours. (Id. Vol. VIII., pp. 299-301.) 

When the experiment of our Government was undertaken, 
the chart adopted for our guidance was the Constitution. De- 
parture from the lines there laid down is failure. It is only 
by a strict adherence to the direction they indicate and by 
restraint within the limitations they fix that we can furnish 
proof to the world of the fitness of the American people for 
self-government. (Id. Vol. VIII., p. 773.) 



I70 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Benjamin Harrison, twenty-third president, 1889-1893. 
American Liberties, Blessings and Duties. 

The people of every State have here their representatives. 
Surely I do not misinterpret the spirit of the occasion when 
I assume that the whole body of the people covenant with me 
and with each other to-day to support and defend the Con- 
stitution and the Union of the States, to yield willing obedi- 
ence to all the laws and each to every other citizen his equal, 
civil and political rights. Entering thus solemnly -into cov- 
enant with each other, we may reverently invoke and con- 
fidently expect the favor and help of Almighty God. . . Our 
people will not fail at this time to recall the incidents which 
accompanied the institution of government under the Con- 
stitution, or to find inspiration and guidance in the teachings 
and example of Washington and his great associates. . . The 
masses of our people are better fed, clothed and housed than 
their fathers were. The facilities for popular education have 
been vastly enlarged and more generally diffused. The vir- 
tues of courage and patriotism have given recent proof of 
their continued presence and increasing power in the hearts 
and over the lives of our people. The influences of religion 
have been multiplied and strengthened. . . As a citizen may 
not elect what laws he will obey, neither may the Executive 
elect which he will enforce. The duty to obey and to exe- 
cute embraces the Constitution in its entirety and the whole 
code of laws enacted under it. . . No other people have a 
government more worthy of their respect and love or a land 
so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so full 
of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor. God has 
placed upon our head a diadem and has laid at our feet power 
and wealth beyond definition or calculation. But we must 
not forget that we take these gifts upon the condition that 
justice and mercy shall hold the reins of power and that 
the upward avenues of hope shall be free to all the people. . . 
We shall find unalloyed pleasure in the revelation which our 
next census will make. . . Each State will bring its gen- 
erous contribution to the great aggregate of the nation's in- 
crease. And when the harvests from the fields, the cattle 
from the hills, and the ores of the earth shall have been 
weighed, counted and valued, we will turn from them all to 
crown with the highest honor the State thatmas most promoted 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 171 

education, virtue, justice, and patriotism among its people. 
(Id. Vol. IX., pp 6, 7, 9, 13, 14.) 

William McKinley, twenty-fifth president, 1897-1901. 

Popular Government. Six Free Things. Education. The 

Constitution. Fruits of American Sovereignty. The 

Step of the Republic. The Nation's Hope is in 

the Public School and University. 

No great emergency in the one hundred and eight years 
of our eventful national life has ever arisen that has not been 
met with wisdom and courage by the American people, with 
fidelity to their best interests and highest destiny, and to the 
honor of the American name. These years of glorious his- 
tory have exalted mankind and advanced the cause of free- 
dom throughout the world, and immeasurably strengthened 
the precious free institutions which we enjoy. The people 
love and will sustain these institutions. The great essential 
to our happiness and prosperity is that we adhere to the prin- 
ciples upon which the government was established and in- 
sist upon their faithful observance. Equality of rights must 
prevail, and our laws be always and everywhere respected and 
obeyed. We may have failed in the discharge of our full duty 
as citizens of the great Republic, but it is consoling and en- 
couraging to realize that free speech, a free press, free thought, 
free schools, the free and unmolested right of religious liberty 
and worship, and free and fair elections are dearer and more 
universally enjoyed to-day than ever before. These guar- 
anties must be sacredly preserved and widely strengthened. . . 
A grave peril to the Republic would be a citizenship too ig- 
norant to understand, or too vicious to appreciate, the great 
value and beneficence of our institutions and laws, and against 
all who come here to make war upon them' our gates must 
be promptly and tightly closed. Nor must we be unmindful 
of the need of improvement among our own citizens, but with 
the zeal of our forefathers encourage the spread of knowledge 
and free education. (Id. Vol. X., pp. 14-16.) 

The Republic was never so strong, because never so 
strongly intrenched in the hearts of the people as now. The 
Constitution, with few amendments, exists as it left the hands 
of its authors. The additions which have been made to it 
proclaim larger freedom and more extended citizenship. Pop- 



IJ2 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL 

ular government has demonstrated in its one hundred and 
twenty-four years of trial here its stability and security and its 
efficiency as the best instrument of national development and 
the best safeguard to human rights. (Id. Vol. X., p. 191.) 

We are not waging war against the inhabitants of the 
Philippine Islands. A portion of them are making war against 
the United States. By far the greater part of the inhabitants 
recognize American Sovereignty and welcome it as a guar- 
anty of order and of security for life, property, liberty, free- 
dom of conscience, and the pursuit of happiness. . . May it 
end without further bloodshed, and there be ushered in the 
reign of peace to be made permanent by a government of lib- 
erty under law! (Id. Vol. X., p. 224.) 

The Republic has marched on and on, and its step has ex- 
alted freedom and humanity. (Id. Vol. X., p. 243.) 

In an address delivered at " Columbus, Ohio, June 12, 
1895, entitled " Education and Citizenship," Mr. McKinley 
said: 

Our hope is in the public schools and in the university. 
(International Memorial Edition, Life of William McKinley, 

P- 247.) 

Theodore Roosevelt, 

the twenty-sixth president of the United States, in his book 
entitled, " American Ideals " (published by G. P. Putnam's 
Sons, New York and London, 1900), writing on " True 
Americanism" (page 63), says: 

Free Schools. No Public Money for Parochial Schools. Full 

Religious Toleration. Separation of Church and State. 

Immigrant must Revere our Flag. The Church 

which Remains Foreign is Doomed. 

We have no room for any people who do not act and vote 
simply as Americans, and as nothing else. Moreover, we 
have as little use for people who carry religious prejudices 
into our politics as for those who carry prejudices of caste or 
nationality. We stand unalterably in favor of the public 
school system in its entirety. We believe that English and no 
other language, is that in which all the school exercises should 
be conducted. We are against any division of the school fund, 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 1 73 

and against any appropriation of public money for sectarian 
purposes. We are against any recognition whatever by the 
State in any shape or form of State-aided parochial schools. 
But we are equally opposed to any discrimination against 
or for a man because of his creed. We demand that all 
citizens, Protestant and Catholic, Jew and Gentile, shall have 
fair treatment in every way; that all alike shall have their 
rights guaranteed them. The very reasons that make us un- 
qualified in cur opposition to State-aided sectarian schools 
make us equally bent that in the management of our public 
schools, the adherents of each creed shall be given exact and 
equal justice, wholly without regard to their religious affilia- 
tions ; that trustees, superintendents, teachers, scholars, all 
alike, shall be treated without any reference whatsoever to the 
creed they profess. •. . The immigrant . . must learn 
that we exact full religious toleration and the complete sep- 
aration of Church and State (p. 68). . He must revere only 
our flag; not only must it come first, but no other flag should 
even come second. He must learn to celebrate . . the Fourth 
of July instead of St. Patrick's Day (p. 69). . . Those (of the 
Germans) who became Americanized have furnished to our 
history a multitude of honorable names ; those who did not 
become Americanized form to the present day an unimportant 
body, of no significance in American existence. . . Thus it 
has ever been with all people who have come hither, of what- 
ever stock or blood. The same thing is true of the churches. 
A church which remains foreign, in language or spirit, is 
doomed (p. 71). 

President Roosevelt's works are now in the Vatican li- 
brary, and that he is admired by the highest officials of the 
Holy See will be seen by these words of His Eminence, Car- 
dinal Satolli, uttered at an international function in Rome, 
February 29, 1904: 

I have very great pleasure in asking you to drink the 
health of the President of the United States. Nearly all of 
us have been witnesses of his zeal, his activity, his forceful- 
ness ; we have followed with interest and admiration the steps 
of his brilliant career, and we have come to look upon him as 
a magnificent type of the true American. 



174 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Vaticanisms. 

The Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII. have been pub- 
lished by Benziger Brothers, (New York, Cincinnati, Chica- 
go), printers to the Holy Apostolic See. I take it that no 
higher authority can be cited than this Vicar of Christ 
for I read in his words " We hold upon this earth the place of 
God Almighty'' (The Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII., 
P. 304- ) 

Against Equality, Freedom of Thought, Sovereignty of the 

People, Freedom of Conscience, Freedom of Speech, 

Freedom of the Press, and Separation of Church 

and State. Catholic Church Shoidd be 

Supreme in State. 

I now quote from the deliverances of Leo XIII. In his 
Encyclical entitled " The Christian Constitution of States," 
dated November 1, 1885, His Holiness said: 

Sad it is to call to mind how the harmful and lamenta- 
ble rage for innovation which rose to a climax in the six- 
teenth century, threw first of all into confusion the Christian 
religion, and next, by natural sequence, invaded the pre- 
cincts of philosophy, whence it spread amongst all classes of 
society. From this source . . . burst forth all those later tenets 
of unbridled license which, in the midst of the terrible up- 
heavals of the last century, were wildly conceived and boldly 
proclaimed as the principles and foundation of that new juris- 
prudence which was not merely previously unknown, but was 
at variance on many points with not only the Christian, but 
even with the natural law. Amongst these principles the main 
one lays down that as all men are alike by race and nature, 
so in like manner all are equal in the control of their life ; that 
each one is so far his own master as to be in no sense under 
the rule of any other individual ; that each is free to think 
on every subject just as he may choose, and to do whatever 
he may like to do ; that no man has any right to rule over 
other men. In a society grounded upon such maxims, all 
government is nothing more nor less than the will of the people, 
and the people, being under the power of itself alone, is alone 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 175 

its ruler. It does choose nevertheless some to whose charge it 
may commit itself, but in such wise that it makes over to them 
not the right so much as the business of governing, to be exer- 
cised, however, in its name. The authority of God is passed 
over in silence. . . as if there could be a government of which 
the whole origin and power and authority did not reside in 
God himself. Thus, as is evident, a State becomes nothing 
but a multitude, which is its own master and ruler. And 
since the populace is declared to contain within itself the 
spring-head of all rights and of all power, it follows that the 
State does not consider itself bound by any kind of duty 
towards God. Moreover, it believes that it is not obliged to 
make public profession of any religion ; or to inquire which 
of the very many religions is the only one true ; or to prefer one 
religion to all the rest ; or to show, to any form of religion special 
favor; but, on the contrary, is bound to grant equal rights to 
every creed, so that public order may not be disturbed by any 
particular' form of religious belief. And it is a part of this 
theory that all questions that concern religion are to be re- 
ferred to private judgment; that every one is to be free to fol- 
low .whatever religion he prefers, or none at all if he disap- 
prove of all. From- this the following consequences logically 
flow : that the judgment of each one's conscience is inde- 
pendent of all law ; that the most unrestrained opinions may 
be openly expressed as to the practice or omission of divine 
worship ; and that every one has unbounded license to think 
whatever he chooses and publish abroad whatever he thinks. 
•(The Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII., pp. 120, 121.) 

The sovereignty of the people, however, and this with- 
out any reference to God, is held to reside in the multitude; 
which is doubtless a doctrine exceedingly well calculated to 
flatter and to inflame many passions, but which lacks all rea- 
sonable proof, and all power of insuring public safety and 
preserving order. . . The liberty of thinking, and of publish- 
ing, whatsoever each one likes, without any hindrance, is not 
in itself an advantage over which society can wisely rejoice. 
On the contrary, it is the fountain-head and origin of many 
evils. (Id. p. 123.) 

To exclude the Church, founded by God Himself, from the 
business of life, from the power of making laws, from the 
training of the youth, from domestic society, is a grave and 



176 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

fatal error. . . The Church of Christ is the true and sole 
teacher of virtue and guardian of morals. (Id. p. 124.) 

The drawing up of laws, the administration of State af- 
fairs, the godless education of youth, the spoliation and sup- 
pression of religious orders, the* overthrow of the temporal 
power of the Roman Pontiff, all alike aim at this one end — to 
paralyze the action of Christian institutions, to cramp to 
the utmost the freedom of the Catholic Church, and to curtail 
her every single prerogative. (Id. p. 122.) 

The State, constituted as it is, is clearly bound to act up 
to the manifold and weighty duties linking it to God, by the 
public profession of religion. . . It is a public crime to act 
as though there were no God. # So, too, is it a sin in the State 
not to have care for religion, as a something beyond its 
scope, or as of no> practical benefit; or out of many forms of 
religion to adopt that one which chimes in with the fancy; 
for we are bound absolutely to worship God in that way 
which He has shown to be His will. All who rule, therefore, 
should hold in honor the holy name of God, and one of their 
chief duties must be to favor religion, to protect it, to shield 
it under the credit and sanction of the laws, and neither to 
organize nor enact any measure that may compromise its safe- 
ty. This is the bounden duty of rulers to the people over 
whom they rule. (Id. pp. I TO, in.) 

Care must especially be taken to> preserve unharmed and. 
unimpeded the religion whereof the practice is the link con- 
necting man with God. Now, it cannot be difficult to find out 
which is the true religion, if only it be sought with an earnest 
and unbiased mind ; for proofs are abundant and striking. (Id. 
p. in.) 

The only true religion is the one established by Jesus 
Christ Himself, and which He committed to His Church to 
protect and to propagate. (Id. p. 112.) 

And just as the end at which the Church aims is by far 
the noblest of ends, so is its authority the most exalted of all 
authority, nor can it be looked upon as inferior to the civil 
power, or in any manner dependent upon it. (Id. pp. 112, 

II30 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 177 

Laments Lack of Ecclesiastical Authority in Public Schools. 

Pope Leo XIII. in his Encyclical entitled " The Right 
Ordering of Christian Life," dated December 25, 1888, stated: 

As for the public schools, it is well known to you that 
there is no ecclesiastical authority left in them ; and during 
the years when tender minds should be trained carefully and 
conscientiously in Christian virtue, the precepts of religion 
are for the most part even left untaught. (The Great En- 
cyclical Letters of Leo XIII., p. 167.) 

When the Church and State Conflict, Obedience to the State 

Becomes a Crime. 

In his Encyclical entitled " On the Chief Duties of Chris- 
tians as Citizens," dated January 10, 1890, His Holiness said: 

We are bound, then, to love dearly the country whence 
we have received the means of enjoyment this mortal life af- 
fords, but we have a much more urgent obligation to love, 
with ardent love, the Church to which we owe the life of the 
soul, a life that will endure forever. For fitting it is to pre- 
fer the good of the soul to the well-being of the body, inas- 
much as duties toward God are of a far more hallowed char- 
acter than those towards men. Moreover, if we would judge 
aright, the supernatural love for the Church and the natural 
love of our own country proceed from the same eternal prnciple, 
since God himself is their Author and originating Cause. Con- 
sequently it follows that between the duties they respectively 
enjoin, neither can come into collision with the other. We 
can, certainly, and should love ourselves, bear ourselves kind- 
ly towards our fellow-men, nourish affection for the State and 
the governing powers ; but at the same time we can and must 
cherish towards the Church a feeling of filial piety, and love 
God with the deepest love of which we are capable. The 
order of precedence of these duties is, however, at times either 
under stress of public calamities, or through the perverse will 
of men, inverted. For instances occur where the State seems 
to require from men as subjects one thing, and religion, from 
men as Christians, quite another; and this in reality without 
any other ground, than that the rulers of the State either 
hold the sacred power of the Church of no* account, or en- 



I78 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

deavor to subject it to their own will. Hence arises a con- 
flict, and an occasion, through such conflict, of virtue being 
put to the proof. The two powers are confronted and urge 
their behests in a contrary sense; to obey both is wholly im- 
possible. No man can serve two masters, for to please the 
one amounts to contemning the other. As to which should 
be preferred no one ought to balance for an instant. It is a 
high crime indeed to withdraw allegiance from God in 
order to please men ; an act of consummate wickedness to 
break the laws of Jesus Christ, in order to yield obedience 
to earthly rulers, or, under pretext of keeping the civil law, 
to ignore the rights of the Church; we ought to obey God 
rather than men. This answer, which of old, Peter and the 
other apostles were used to give the civil authorities who en- 
joined unrighteous things, we must, in like circumstances, give 
always and without hesitation. No better citizen is there, 
whether in time of peace or war, than the Christian who is 
mindful of his duty; but such a one should be ready to suffer 
all things, even death itself, rather than abandon the cause of 
God or of the Church. . . But if the laws of the State are 
manifestly at variance with the divine law, containing enact- 
ments hurtful to the Church, or conveying injunctions ad- 
ve/se to the duties imposed by religion, or if they violate in 
the person of the supreme Pontiff the authority of Jesus Christ, 
then truly, to resist becomes a positive duty, to obey, a crime; 
a crime, moreover, combined with misdemeanor against the 
State itself, inasmuch as every offence leveled against religion 
is also a sin against the State. . . Men have become pos- 
sessed with so arrogant a sense of their own powers, as al- 
ready to consider themselves able to banish from social life 
the authority and empire of God. Led away by this delusion, 
they make over to human nature the dominion of which they 
think God has been despoiled ; from nature, they maintain, 
we must seek the principle and rule of all truth ; from nature, 
they aver, alone spring, and to it should be referred, all the 
duties that religious feeling prompts. Hence they deny all 
revelation from on high, and all fealty due to the Christian 
teaching of morals as well as all obedience to the Church, and 
they go so far as to deny her power of making laws and ex- 
ercising every other kind of right, even disallowing the Church 
any place among the civil institutions of the State . . in order 
that the legislation may the more easily be adapted to these 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 1 79 

principles, and the morals of the people influenced in accord- 
ance with them. Whence it comes to pass that in many coun- 
tries Catholicism is either openly assailed or else secretly in- 
terfered with, full impunity being granted to the most per- 
nicious doctrines, while the public profession of Christian 
truth is shackled often times with manifold constraints. . . 
But the supreme teacher in the church is the Roman Pontiff. 
Union of minds, therefore, requires, together with a perfect 
accord in the one faith, complete submission and obedience 
of will to the church and to the Roman Pontiff as to God him- 
self. This obedience, however, should be perfect, because it 
is enjoined by faith itself, and has this in common with faith, 
that it cannot be given in shreds ; — nay, were it not absolute 
and perfect in every particular, it might wear the name of 
obedience, but its essence would disappear. (The Great En- 
cyclical Letters of Leo XIII. , pp. 183, 185-187, 193.) 

Church and State Cannot be Separated. 

In his Encyclical which reviewed his pontificate, dated 
March 19, 1902, His Holiness said: 

In making man a being destined to live in society, God 
in his Providence has also founded the Church, which as the 
holy text expresses it, He has established on Mount Zion in 
order that it might be a light which, with its life-giving rays, 
would cause the principle of life to penetrate into the various 
degrees of human society by giving it divinely inspired laws, 
by means of which society might establish itself in that order 
which would be most conducive to its welfare. Hence in pro- 
portion as society separates itself from the Church, which 
is an important element in its strength, by so much does it 
decline, or its woes are multiplied for the reason that they are 
separated whom God wished to bind together. (The Great 
Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII., p. 575.) 

Separation of Church and State an Absurdity. Sometimes it 

is worthy of Toleration when Situation Practically Might 

be Worse — in United States for Instance. 

In his Encyclical entitled "Allegiance to the (French) 
Republic," dated February 16, 1892, His Holiness said: 



l8o THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

We shall not hold to the same language (referring to the 
Concordat between France and the Holy See) on another 
point, concerning the principle of the separation of the State 
and Church, which is equivalent to the separation of human 
legislation from Christian and divine legislation. We do not 
care to interrupt Ourselves here in order to demonstrate the 
absurdity of such a separation ; each one will understand for 
himself. As soon as the State refuses to give to God what 
belongs to God, by a necessary consequence it refuses to give 
to citizens that to which, as men, they have a right ; as, whether 
agreeable or not to accept, it cannot be denied that man's 
rights spring from his duty toward God. Whence it follows 
that the State, by missing in this connection the principal ob- 
ject of its institution, finally becomes false to itself by deny- 
ing that which is the reason of its own existence. These su- 
perior truths are so clearly proclaimed by the voice of even 
natural reason, that they force themselves upon all who are not 
blinded by the violence of passion ; therefore Catholics can- 
not be too careful in defending themselves against such a 
separation. In fact, to wish that the State would separate it- 
self from the Church would be to wish, by a logical sequence, 
that the Church be reduced to the liberty of living according 
to the law common to all citizens. . . It is true that in certain 
countries this state of affairs exists. It is a condition which, 
if it have numerous and serious inconveniences, also offers 
some advantages — above all when, by a fortunate inconsis- 
tency, the legislator is inspired by Christian principles — and, 
though these advantages cannot justify the false principle of 
separation nor authorize its defence, they nevertheless ren- 
der worthy of toleration a situation which, practically, might be 
worse. But in France, a nation Catholic in her traditions and 
by the present faith of the great majority of her sons, the 
Church should not be placed in the precarious position to 
which she must submit among other peoples ; and the better 
that Catholics understand the aim of the enemies who desire 
this separation, the less will they favor it. To these enemies, 
and they say it clearly enough, this separation means that po- 
litical legislation be entirely independent of religious legisla- 
tion; nay, more, that Power be absolutely indifferent to the 
interests of Christian society, that is to say, of the Church; 
in fact, that it deny her very existence. (The Great Encycli- 
cal Letters of Leo XIII., pp. 261-263.) 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. l8l 

Confirms and Renews All Censures of Predecessors. 

In his Encyclical entitled " The Evils Affecting Modern 
Society," dated April 21, 1878, His Holiness said: 

In the next place, in order that the union of hearts be- 
tween their chief Pastor and the whole Catholic flock may 
daily be strengthened, We here call upon you, Venerable 
Brothers, with particular earnestness, and strongly urge you 
to kindle, with priestly zeal and pastoral care, the fire of the 
love of religion among the faithful entrusted to you, that their 
attachment to this chair of truth and justice may become closer 
and firmer, that they may welcome all its teachings with 
thorough assent of mind and will, wholly rejecting such opin- 
ions, even when most widely received, as they know to be 
contrary to the Church's doctrine. In this matter, the Roman 
Pontiffs, Our predecessors, and last of all, Pius IX. of sacred 
memory, especially in the General Council of the Vatican, 
have not neglected, so often as there was need, to condemn 
wide-spreading errors and to smite them with the Apostolic con- 
demnation. This they did, keeping before their eyes the words 
of St. Paul : Beware lest any man cheat you by philosophy 
and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, according 
to the elements of the world and not according to Christ. All 
such censures, We, following in the steps of Our predeces- 
sors, do confirm and renew from this Apostolic Seat of truth, 
whilst We earnestly ask of the Father of Lights that all the 
faithful, brought to thorough agreement in the like feeling 
and the same belief, may think and speak even as Ourselves. 
(The Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII. , pp. 16, 17.) 

The predecessors of Leo XIII. had condemned without 
stint the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution of the United 
States. 

Not in America is Found Most Desirable Status of the Church. 

Sighs for the Favor of the Laws and the Patronage 

of the Public Authority. 

From the Encyclical of Leo XIII., entitled " Catholicity 
in the United States," dated January 6, 1895, I quote as fol- 
lows: 



l82 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Many facts have been brought to Our notice, whereby We 
are animated with hope and filled with joy, namely, that the 
numbers of secular and regular clergy are steadily augment- 
ing, that pious sodalities and confraternities are held in esteem, 
that- the Catholic parochial schools, the Sunday-schools for 
imparting Christian doctrine, and summer schools are in a 
flourishing condition ; moreover, associations for mutual aid, 
for the relief of the indigent, for the promotion of temperate 
living, add to all this the many evidences of popular piety. 
The main factor, no doubt, in bringing things into this happy 
state were the ordinances and decrees of your synods, especi- 
ally of those which in more recent times were convened and 
confirmed by the authority of the Apostolic See. But, more- 
over (a fact which it gives pleasure to acknowledge), thanks 
are due to the equity of the laws which obtain in America 
and to the customs of the well-ordered Republic. For the 
Church amongst you, unopposed by the Constitution and Gov- 
ernment of your nation, fettered by no hostile legislation, pro- 
tected against violence by the common laws and the impar- 
tiality of the tribunals, is free to live and act without hin- 
drance. Yet, though all this is true, it would be very erron- 
eous to draw the conclusion that in America is to be sought 
the type of the most desirable status of the Church, or that 
it would be universally lawful or expedient for State and 
Church to be, as in America, dissevered and divorced. The 
fact that Catholicity with you is in good condition, nay, is 
even enjoying a prosperous growth, is by all means to be at- 
tributed to the fecundity with which God has endowed His 
Church, in virtue of which unless men or circumstances in- 
terfere, she spontaneously expands and propagates herself; 
but she would bring forth more abundant fruits if, in addition 
to liberty, she enjoyed the favor of the laws and the patronage 
of the public authority. (The Great Encyclical Letters of 
Leo XIII., pp. 323, 324.) 

Any Civilisation Conflicting with Holy Church is a Meaning- 
less Name. 

Possibly, as a summing up of the views of Leo XIII. , the 
following taken from his Encyclical entitled " The Evils Af- 
fecting Modern Society," dated April 21, 1878, although not 
uttered at the close of his many deliverances, may suffice: 



BOARD OF EDUCATION. 183 

That kind of civilization which conflicts with the doc- 
trines and laws of Holy Church is nothing but a worthless 
imitation and a meaningless name. (The Great Encyclical 
Letters of Leo XIII., p. 12.) 

Does the Parochial School Teach Americanisms or 

Vaticanisms ? 

The important question now is : Does the parochial school 
teach these Americanisms or these Vaticanisms? If it teaches 
the former, it is non-Catholic ; if it teaches the latter, it is un- 
American. Does it teach neither ? Then it is neither American 
nor Catholic because its relation to both is too vital to permit 
it to follow any such silent course. 

I close this chapter with this statement : The parochial 
school which does not continually strive to create in its pu- 
pils a firm belief in the foregoing Americanisms is a menace 
to the American Nation. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS. 



Bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals are the superintend- 
ents of the parochial schools in their respective Sees. 

A Papal Delegate is virtually a supervising superin- 
tendent of parochial schools. 

Such superintendencies are inherently ineffective and de- 
ficient for many reasons. 

Is the parochial school superintendent always a man of 
natural ability, pedagogic training, and holiness of life? No, 
indeed! He may be without pedagogic ability and training, 
and most frequently is. He may be a trained spiritual ad- 
viser — he is not a trained secular educator. He may be a 
man of immoral life. Grave charges against parochial school 
superintendents are not unknown at Rome. 

Lamentable are the deficiencies which are frequently 
found in men who wear the mitre ; and shocking are the means 
by which the episcopal dignity is often acquired. 

Bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals frequently get their 
positions through " pull " and per pecuniam — by money — and 
not through merit or the Holy Ghost. 

Whenever there is a vacant See a regular scramble for 
the nomination to the position ensues among the clergy. Often 
the " wires " are laid before the See becomes vacant. Cau- 
cuses are held day and night, trades are made, preferments 
are offered, and money is plentifully used. There is very lit- 
tle chance for a humble, pious and learned man to receive the 
nomination or appointment. 



SUPERINTENDENTS, I«5 

Bishop Spalding, of Peoria, Illinois, was chosen by the 
electors of the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Suffragan Bi- 
shops of that Province, and the leading Catholic ecclesiastics 
of America urged Rome to appoint him, as the successor of 
the late Archbishop Feehan ; but merit was ignored and the 
Holy Ghost was not consulted. In the words of one of the 
Suffragan Bishops of the Province of Chicago, " the defeat 
of Bishop Spalding was brought about by the sordid little 
soul of Satolli, the Religious Rabble, (meaning the Religious 
Orders), and the reprobates (meaning priests) of Chicago." 

Ecclesiastics are appointed to vacant Sees in America by 
the Propaganda, subject to the approval of the Pope. The 
appointing powers prefer men who will be entirely subser- 
vient to them, and hence they do not select men who are likely 
to enter upon any reformatory work among the clergy. They 
dread getting any priest into office who might be inclined, 
even in a remote degree, to imitate the fearless and righteous 
Florentine martyr, Father Jerome Savonarola. Such a man 
in his zeal might attempt to bring about a reformation, and 
find it necessary to expose to the world the rottenness of 
priests and prelates, and if there were any attempts by Rome 
to stop him he might tell some embarrassing facts, ancient 
and modern, about the clergy there, and by being the head 
of a See his words might create a deep impression on the 
world. A risk of this kind is not knowingly taken by the 
ecclesiastics who control the appointment, and whose mail, 
while their decision is in abeyance, often necessitates extra 
banking facilities, while they themselves are waited upon by 
emissaries of various candidates, armed with blank checks. 

Wicked men do not have their way every time a vacant 
See is filled, and men of good character sometimes providen- 
tially slip into the episcopacy; but if they assert any indepen- 
dence, for instance by lecturing before a non-Catholic uni- 
versity and thereby giving recognition to such an institution, 
or by writing liberal-minded articles, which are repugnant 
to Rome, they will never get any higher ecclesiastical honors. 



l86 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

There is a bishop in Illinois who is a living proof of the truth- 
fulness of my words. He is an American citizen who is most 
highly esteemed by all classes and creeds, and has a world- 
wide reputation. Will he ever be a Cardinal? No. Will he 
ever be an Archbishop? No. Men who are unworthy to un- 
latch his shoes have been and will be given the preference. 

Two Illustrations of the Selection of Parochial School 

Superintendents. 

My biographical sketch contains one illustration. 

A Catholic priest, a candidate for the episcopacy, went 
to Rome to secure the mitre, and met there a beautiful woman 
from St. Louis, who was travelling. He returned to America, 
and soon afterwards was elevated to the Episcopacy. Formal 
charges of seduction were then made against him, but nothing 
came of them. They were "wastebasketed." A distinguished 
prelate, his Archbishop, since deceased, said to him : " I ex- 
pected merely to attend your consecration, but since they have 
preferred charges against you I will do better — I will con- 
secrate you myself," and he did. This seductionist-bishop 
is a strong advocate of the American Federation of Catholic 
Societies ; he wants French goods boycotted to punish France 
for attacking and expelling the Religious Orders ; and he 
asserts that the American public school is of the Devil. 

Unworthy Parochial School Principals and Assistant 

Principals are Shielded by Parochial School 

Superintendents. 

The parochial school superintendent is generally in such 
a position that he dare not interfere with corrupt parochial 
school principals or assistant principals. Parochial school su- 
perintendents are not made in a day. They are first priests. 
They serve their time in the pastorate. They are men of like 
passions with their brethren. If they sin in the pastorate their 
sins are probably found out by their fellow-priests. When 
they are elevated to the episcopacy the priests of their dioceses 



SUPERINTENDENTS. I87 

already know or speedily find out about their compromising 
deeds, and if they rebuke a corrupt priest it is but the kettle 
calling the pot black. There are Bishops, Archbishops and 
Cardinals who are living in constant dread of exposure. 

In America the Bishops and Archbishops have a cardinal- 
ate bee in their bonnets as the Catholic Church in America has 
but one representative in the College of Cardinals. They re- 
gard this representation as being ridiculously small. The pub- 
lic press teems periodically with announcements, purporting to 
emanate from Rome, of the intention of the Holy Father to en- 
large the American representation in the College of Cardinals. 
This is welcome news to the American Church dignitaries, who 
see in it an opportunity for their own advancement. Now does 
any one suppose that a Bishop or an Archbishop will hazard 
his chance for a Cardinal's hat by having disagreements with 
the powerful sinning priests under him? Indeed, no. These 
parochial school principals might manage to get racy accounts 
into the Vatican of the adventures of their Archbishop when 
he was a parish rector or a parochial school superintendent 
elsewhere, and while the Holy See might not seriously object 
to him on this account, still it might turn the scales against 
him and in favor of another Archbishop whose Archdiocese 
shows no outward sign of dissension. The ambitions of a 
Bishop or an Archbishop lead him into the course of condon- 
ing sin, especially when the sinners are his under-shepherds 
of wealth and prominence. It may happen that his priests 
are aware not only of his past, but present violations of the 
moral law. Elevation to the episcopacy does not deaden the 
fomes peccati. If it did, the Council of Trent would not have 
passed laws (which are still in force) concerning incon- 
tinent Bishops and their bastard children. (See Sess. 25, cap. 
xiv. et cap. xv., de Reformatione.) 

To let my readers know how parochial school superin- 
tendents shield unworthy parochial school principals, I now 
state that a strong Catholic Layman's Association was formed 
during the Chicago controversy. The laymen, knowing that 



l88 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

their immediate Church dignitaries would afford no relief, 
made several appeals to the Papal Delegate, Cardinal Mar- 
tinelli. This is a copy of one of their communications : 

Chicago, January 4th, 1902. 
To His Eminence, 
Cardinal Martinelli, 

Pro Delegate Apostolic, 
Washington, D. C. 
Your Eminence : 

The committee representing the Catholic Laymen's As- 
sociation of Chicago, were grievously disappointed not to be 
able to present to Your Eminence in person the petition en- 
closed which they had prepared for presentation on Sunday, 
January 5th, 1902, at which time it was reported that Your 
Eminence was to be in Chicago. 

You will note in this petition we refrain from specifying 
the particulars of any incidents evidencing the lamentable 
conditions which prevail here and call for immediate and 
strenuous measures of relief. We omitted such mention from 
said petition because we deemed the occasion upon which we 
hope to present the same to Your Eminence to be unfitting for 
such details. We desire now to impress upon Your Eminence 
some adequate conception of the state of affairs by referring 
to the following facts, all of which are capable of verification. 

We confine our attention to the period within the past 
two months. 

We still withhold names because the purpose of this com- 
munication is to solicit your intervention and beg the oppor- 
tunity to present evidence. It is plain that at such stage of 
procedure it is not desirable that the names of the delinquents 
should be committed to writing upon any documents except 
such as are intended as formal steps in the way of prosecution. 

On the night of Friday, November 29, 1901, between 7 
and 9 P. M., a pastor of one of our city parishes was seen in 
a state of intoxication near Wabash Avenue and Madison 
Street in this city engaged in soliciting women passers-by. 

On the same night another pastor of a parish in this dio- 
cese was seen coming out of a public saloon plainly under the 
influence of drink. This was in the same general locality 
as the incident last above mentioned. This district is in the 
central and most frequented part of the city. 



SUPERINTENDENTS. 1 89 

On Tuesday, December 3, 1901, about midnight, another 
priest, recently appointed pastor of a city parish, was found 
by the police in a condition of helpless intoxication and taken 
to a police station and there kept over night. 

Within a few days of the last mentioned incident an as- 
sistant pastor of a prominent city parish entered a saloon located 
in a neighboring parish in this city ; found no one present there 
except the saloon-keeper and his wife ; dispatched the former 
upon some errand real or supposed which would have required 
the husband's absence for some time ; and then attempted an 
indecent assault upon the wife ; was resisted and received a 
severe beating at the hands of the wife and the husband upon 
the latter's return. 

About midnight on Sunday, December 1, 1901, the police 
were called to the presbytery of one of the largest parishes in 
this city to a disturbance caused by one of the assistant priests 
who was under the influence of liquor, firing pistol shots in 
the house. Upon the entry of the police beer bottles were 
found lying about the room and the windows were broken 
and the scene was one of drunken disorder. 

An assistant pastor of a prominent city parish is known 
to have had illicit intercourse repeatedly with a young girl, 
with whom his first appointment was made through the con- 
fessional. 

It is also known that this same assistant with three other 
priests had intercourse with the same woman during the same 
evening while they were together all under the influence of 
liquor. 

The subscribers hereto are life-long members of the Catho- 
lic Church. Her reputation is as dear to us as our own. We 
beg you to believe that we are incapable of making such state- 
ments as the above except in an honest belief of their truth 
and in the sole desire to save the Church from such raven- 
ing wolves. We are ourselves responsible citizens whose self- 
interest as well as a sense of decency would make it impossi- 
ble for us to participate in or to countenance slanders of our 
own Church. It is only because these enormities have grown 
to such frightful proportions as to threaten the very sanctity 
of our own homes and to make every Catholic man with 
wife and daughters shudder to reflect that they or their friends 
are exposed to such dangers and that such unspeakable shame 
is brought upon their Holy Mother, the Church. 



190 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

We implore Your Eminence, if it be impossible to prose- 
cute an immediate investigation of these matters, that you 
will take at least some prompt steps to impose some restrain- 
ing influence upon this element of our priesthood here. When 
the late agitation to which Father Crowley was a party was at 
its height it was noted that these evil excesses were at least 
temporarily suppressed. But recently it seems to have been 
understood that the authorities of the Church in frowning 
upon that agitation have condoned the evils which were there- 
by exposed, and that since Father Crowley was subjected to 
censure, the evil-doers had received a dispensation and were 
licensed to continue as before. There is apparently no one here 
who has the authority and at the same time the courage and 
the disposition to suppress these abominable evils. They have 
existed so long and are known to so many among the Faithful 
and the efforts heretofore made to invoke the active interven- 
tion of the local authorities of the Church have so utterly failed 
that we can only appeal to Your Eminence. 

We do so in the hope and with the prayer that you will 
save our Church, our homes, our wives, our children, and 
ourselves from consequences which no man can foresee, if 
our hope is disappointed and our prayer rejected. 

We subscribe ourselves loyal sons of the Catholic Church 
and humble and devoted servants of Christ and dutiful sub- 
jects to Your Eminence, the representative of the Holy See. 

, This communication was duly signed and sent, but it 
was ignored. 

On Sunday, January 19, 1902, there was held at the of- 
fices of the Catholic Laymen's Association in Chicago, a 
meeting of its executive committee. Nearly every parish in 
the city was represented. The following resolutions were 
unanimously passed, and a copy thereof was ordered to be 
sent at once to His Eminence, Cardinal Martinelli, with a 
respectful request for as speedy a reply as his convenience 
would permit. For the purpose of transmitting the resolu- 
tions and receiving a reply thereto, a sub-committee was ap- 
pointed, and its members were directed to request His Emi- 
nence to address his reply to them. The resolution was as 
follows : 



SUPERINTENDENTS. IQI 

Whereas, we have heretofore in dutiful and respectful 
terms invoked the attention of His Eminence, the Pro-Dele- 
gate Apostolic, to the scandalous condition of immorality 
among certain of the clergy in this Archdiocese, citing to him 
numerous specific instances occurring within the past few 
months, with details of time, place and circumstance, and 
praying that he will at least permit us to present the proofs 
of our complaints ; 

And Whereas, His Eminence has heretofore ignored our 
prayer and taken no steps whatever to redress these wrongs ; 

And Whereas, it is our plain and undoubted right, both 
as sons of the Holy Catholic Church and as American citizens, 
to enjoy immunity for ourselves, our wives, our children and 
our homes from any licensed or obligatory association, official 
or personal, whether under the relation of pastor or other- 
wise, with these debasing, soul-destroying influences against 
which we have protested, and are therefore by God himself 
armed with the power of self-protection, if those whom the 
Church have empowered and enjoined to protect us fail in 
that sacred duty and leave us defenseless save by an appeal 
to the public opinion of mankind; 

Therefore Be It Resolved : That if within ten days after 
a copy of these resolutions shall have been forwarded to His 
Eminence, Cardinal Martinelli, no' reply shall have been re- 
ceived thereto and no steps shall have been taken by the 
Church authorities either to institute a thorough investigation 
of these abominable evils, or to secure the presence in the 
diocese of some active and restraining influence which shall 
serve to suppress and check them, and at least secure a tem- 
porary respite from present conditions until a thorough re- 
form can be effected, we shall lay before our fellow-citizens 
in the public press or by whatever means may be necessary the 
full facts and details which form the basis of our just indig- 
nation and complaint, and exhibit to the world the conditions 
in this archdiocese which have prevailed for years past. 

Resolved that in preferring this request to His Eminence 
we reiterate our unshaken loyalty to our Church and our rev- 
erent and dutiful submission to all lawful authority in the 
Church and that, in attempting to fix a specific time within 
which an investigation should be instituted, we intend to act 
subject to the wise judgment of His Eminence, the Pro-Dele- 
gate Apostolic ; and if the time named by us above is too brief 



192 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

for him to take such important action we will gladly and hum- 
bly yield our judgment in this particular to his own; that it 
is only our purpose to receive definite and reliable assurance 
that within a reasonable time action will certainly be taken 
toward that end or at least some measure will be adopted that 
will impose an effective and salutary restraint upon the evil- 
doers whose corrupt actions and conduct imperil the very 
sanctity of our homes. 

The sub-committee sent the following letter to Cardinal 
Martinelli, with a copy of the foregoing resolutions : 

In discharge of the duty devolved upon us we herewith 
transmit to Your Eminence a copy of the resolutions afore- 
said and most respectfully but urgently solicit immediate at- 
tention and as early response as the convenience of Your 
Eminence may permit. 

Cardinal Martinelli refused, point-blank, to take any no- 
tice of the Catholic Laymen. He told me upon one occasion 
at the Delegation Office in Washington : " The laity have no 
right to interfere with the clergy; if the laity understand that 
they have any rights, they will do in America as they once did 
in France during the Revolution, they will kill the clergy. In 
this independent country it would not be wise to let the laity un- 
derstand that they have any rights to interfere in Church mat- 
ters," My reply was : " Then the only rights you concede to 
the laity are to c put up and shut up?' "Just so," he said, 
" and one of the principal things we have against you, Father 
Crowley, is that you are enlightening the Catholic laity of this 
country as to their rights ; the laity have no right to expose 
their clergy, no matter what they do ; any charges by the laity 
against priests or prelates must be ignored; and any spirit of 
independence in the laity in reference to Church government 
must be crushed." 

As a further illustration of how wicked parochial school 
principals are shielded by parochial school superintendents 
and honored by the Parochial School Board of Education, 
I refer again to the case alluded to in Chapter II. of a prom- 



SUPERINTENDENTS. 193 

inent Church dignitary in the Philippine Islands, who was 
formerly a noted pastor in the United States. While he was 
in the pastorate in America he was accused of corrupting 
Protestant and Catholic boys. He was so loathed that decent 
people would spit when they saw him on the street. The 
Church authorities knew what a stench he was, but they did 
not discipline him. Finally lay people confronted him with 
affidavits setting forth his bestialty, and they threatened him 
with immediate criminal prosecution if he did not leave the 
city forthwith. Thereupon he left his parish and went to St. 
Louis, Missouri, and finally to Rome, where he secured the 
friendship and favor of Princes of the Church by a liberal use 
of ill-gotten money. Before he went to Rome he had de- 
frauded a Catholic loan company out of about $80,000 and 
swindled private individuals out of about $20,000. 

He procured for a close friend, who was a pastor in 
America, a See in the Philippine Islands, and then he him- 
self received a desirable appointment in that Archipelago, 
where he now resides in a grand palace and is curing souls. 

His promotion was a shock to the good people of the 
American city from which he had been driven. 

By virtue of his present title he is to-day a member of 
the Pope's household. 

Some of these unworthy parochial school principals who 
are shielded by the superintendents of the parochial school, 
are the spiritual advisers of prominent female academies, or 
convent schools, to which Protestant girls are sent. 

In this connection it * may interest Protestant parents, 

whose daughters are convent pupils, to read the following 

which I take from The Catholic Calendar of September, 1902 

(published by the Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, Illinois), 
page 1 1 : 

Why do many Protestant parents send their daughters 
to convent schools ? In order that their innocence may be safe- 
guarded while their mind is being educated. That is the an- 
swer. The parents know well the dangers that surround 



194 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

their girls in secular schools and fashionable boarding col- 
leges; they know also that in the Sisters' care their darlings 
will be kept from evils. Forbidden knowledge will be closed to 
them. Dangerous books will not be allowed in their hands. 
Improper amusements will be prohibited. The love of virtue 
will be inculcated. Purity will be reverenced. Obedience 
will be made a habit. Truthfulness will be deemed indispen- 
sable. Industry will be honored in the practice. By example 
as well as by precept, goodness, gentleness and gracefulness 
will be taught. 

Moral Inconsistencies of Superintendents. 

One of the most prominent Archbishops in America is 
renting church property in a great city to tenants, who, to his 
knowledge, use it for base and immoral purposes, such as low 
saloons (called in America " barrel houses"), dance halls and 
brothels. He lias much to say against socialism. He receives 
an exorbitant rent from these disreputable tenants because 
of the immunity they enjoy from any municipal interference, 
through the political pull of their ecclesiastical landlord. 

Children of tender years have been rescued from these 
evil resorts. Whatever prosecution of the proprietors was 
started came to an untimely end through the powerful influence 
of His Grace. 

How can this parochial school superintendent rebuke his 
subordinates when they know of his renting church property 
for such base purposes? 

He is particularly outspoken against the public schools. 
He professes to stand in great fear of the rising generations 
becoming utterly depraved by them. The only hope for the 
welfare of this Nation which he can discover is in the parochial 
school. 

He is not the only Catholic ecclesiastic in his Archdiocese, 
or in this glorious Republic, who is drawing a revenue from 
vicious resorts. 

Thorough Supervision Practically Impossible. 

In a large Diocese or Archdiocese it is practically impos- 
sible for the Bishop or Archbishop to thoroughly superintend 



SUPERINTENDENTS. 195 

his parochial schools. He is compelled to rely upon the good 
faith of his priests. 

This is particularly so in an Archdiocese of the magnitude 
of the Chicago Archdiocese, whose Archbishop is burdened 
with manifold spiritual concerns, and financial responsibilities. 

But what thorough supervision of parochial schools can 
there be in a See when its Bishop or Archbishop is incapaci- 
tated by protracted illness or advanced age? If such inca- 
pacitated Bishop or Archbishop has a Coadjutor Bishop, with 
the right of succession, there would be just such supervision 
of the parochial schools in his See as the Coadjutor Bishop 
cared or dared to bestow. If such incapacitated Bishop or 
Archbishop were given an Auxiliary Bishop, there would be 
just such supervision of the parochial schools in his See as 
he might direct his Auxiliary Bishop to give, because the su- 
perintendency of parochial schools does not canonically fall 
within the duties of an Auxiliary Bishop, who is appointed 
chiefly to assist his Bishop or Archbishop in confirming the 
children of the See, and whose position is so temporary and 
subordinate that he holds the office and acts solely at the nod 
of his superior. 

The Most Rev. Patrick A. Feehan, the late Archbishop 
of Chicago, during the last two years of his life, was so weak 
in body and mind that he was never without a trained nurse, 
day or night. He was suffering from a form of paralysis, and 
was so incapacitated that his signature had to be stenciled on 
documents. He was given an Auxiliary Bishop in 1899, but 
this official unfortunately was in a shattered condition of health 
and was able to render him but very little assistance. In 1901 
he was given another Auxiliary Bishop. Archbishop Feehan 
died in July, 1902. During the time that he was incapacitated 
there was virtually no discipline in the Archdiocese of Chica- 
go, and many of the priests took advantage of this fact to do 
as they pleased ; and one of the most prominent of them, who 
was well known at home and abroad, and who was leading 
a dual life, managed to secure several important Archdiocesan 



I96 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

offices, and then, by forging the name of Archbishop Feehan, 
he secured from a number of sources large sums of money, ag- 
gregating many thousand dollars. 

Thorough supervision of parochial schools in any See is 
likely to be wanting at almost any time by reason of the inca- 
pacity, through age or illness, of its Bishop or Archbishop. 

Parochial School Superintendents are not Answerable 

to the American People. 

To whom are the parochial school superintendents re- 
sponsible ? They are directly answerable to the Vatican author- 
ities. The Pope has never seen America, and, if reports be 
true, does not understand the English language, and hence 
cannot read the Constitution of the United States without the 
aid of a translation or an interpreter. 

The supreme head of the parochial school system in the 
United States is inevitably an Italian, and a person whose 
election suits France, Spain and Austria. The College of Car- 
dinals has its majority composed of Italians. The Church 
calls itself universal, and is established indeed in all parts of the 
world, but any Cardinal who is not an Italian has no more 
chance to become Pope than he has to become President of the 
United States. France, Spain and Austria have for centuries 
exercised in the Conclave the right of vetoing any candidate for 
the Papacy whom they disliked. The Holy Ghost, if He acts 
at all in the selection of a Pope, must consult these three secu- 
lar governments. Dr. Alzog says : 

The great Catholic powers have continued to exercise 
a greater or less influence on papal elections down to our day. 
(Dr. Alzog's Manual of Universal Church History, Vol. II., 
p. 484.) 

It certainly must seem to the American people an anomaly 
that France, Spain and Austria should have a commanding 
voice as to who shall be the supreme head of a system of 
schools in the United States of America. 



SUPERINTENDENTS. 1 97 

It is said that the present Pope has decreed that these 
Catholic powers shall no longer exercise the right of veto in 
Papal elections. But the Catholic powers themselves have 
not so agreed, and their right of veto can hardly be terminated 
by a Pontifical pronunciamento. 

A Pertinent Question. 

I submit to the American people this question : Is it to 
the best interests of the Nation that a multitude (now over 
a million) of its children should receive their secular educa- 
tion in schools which for their highest supervision are subject 
to ecclesiastics whose perpetual residence is in Europe, who 
have never seen the shores of America, who are strangers to 
our language, our customs and our laws, and who attack 
Americanisms ? 



CHAPTER V. 



THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL PRINCIPALS AND ASSISTANT 

PRINCIPALS. 



Parish rectors are the principals of parochial schools ; 
and assistant rectors are assistant principals. 

If a parish rector is a drunken or an immoral priest, then 
the parochial school of that parish has a drunken or an im- 
moral principal. If the pastor is a man without pedagogic 
ability, then his school has an incompetent principal. If the 
pastor is mercenary in his aims, then his school children will 
be compelled to further his selfish and reprehensible under- 
takings, a fact fully substantiated by the history of many 
Catholic church fairs, carnivals, picnics and dances. 

The parochial school principal is not always at heart 
and in life a man of God. The majority of the corrupt pas- 
tors in America are principals of parochial schools. 

If assistant rectors are men devoid of moral character 
and pedagogic training, then parochial schools have assistant 
principals who are unworthy. If assistant rectors happen to 
be good men, they can do nothing for the betterment of the 
parochial school if the principal is unworthy, because they 
are wholly in his power. 

Proper care is not exercised by prelates in the adop- 
tion of candidates for the sacred ministry, and hence the paro- 
chial schools are provided with unworthy principals and as- 
sistant principals. Men are adopted, educated and ordained 
who should never be intrusted with the cure of souls or the 
secular training of children/ 

It is well known to those who are conversant with cur- 
rent events in France, and familiar with her history, that the 



PRINCIPALS. 199 

hostile attitude of the French Government toward the Cath- 
olic Church is largely due to the deterioration of the Catholic 
clergy in France. There was a time when the noblest Catholic 
families in France were proud to have their sons ordained 
to the priesthood. What is the situation in that glorious Re- 
public to-day? It is this: The majority of its priests come 
from the families which occupy the lowest places in the social 
scale ; and the sad result is seen in the existence of a woefully 
deteriorated priesthood. A similar condition obtains in Amer- 
ica. Far be it from me to say a word in disparagement of the 
worthy poor. I know that nobleness of manhood and woman- 
hood is found in the humblest dwellings of men. I know that 
in the galaxy of America's heroes the names of men, who were 
the children of poverty, shine with unfading lustre. I rejoice 
in the fact that America is the poor man's opportunity. But 
honest poverty is one thing and vicious poverty is another. 
The children of the former can be trusted, as a rule, with any 
office which is within their capacity in Church or State ; but 
the children of the latter, in the nature of things, cannot be 
equally trusted. " A silken purse cannot be made out of a 
sow's ear." 

Are American bishops and archbishops careful in the ac- 
ceptance of candidates for the priesthood? They are not. 
Young men, whose homes have been evil and whose associates 
have been vicious, are adopted, educated and ordained for the 
sacred priesthood of the Catholic Church. I say it is wrong. 
It is a sowing to the wind and the harvest will be the whirl- 
wind. Throughout America are priests and prelates whose 
antecedents would keep any reputable bond company from 
bonding them for responsible positions in secular employment. 
The Catholic Church in America adopts unworthy men, edu- 
cates them, ordains them, and even honors them with episco- 
pal authority — that is, makes them parochial school assistant 
principals, principals and superintendents. Even bastards are 
ordained to the priesthood in the United States. 



200 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

America is cursed with priests of foreign birth and train- 
ing who were sent to x\merica to relieve their native dioceses 
of the scandal of their unpriestly conduct. A priest who does 
wrong in Europe should never be entrusted with the cure of 
souls in America. The United States Government sends back 
immigrants who are not up to a fixed standard in health, wealth 
and character. The Catholic Church in America should have 
a department of ecclesiastical immigration, and any priest who 
has broken his vows across the sea should be refused adoption 
here. America should not be made a dumping ground for 
fallen foreign priests. 

The parish rector has full control of the parish moneys. 
His word is law. He collects and spends according to his own 
good pleasure. He is supposed to report annually to his bish- 
op, archbishop or • cardinal. But does he ? Well, when he 
does, his report would not stand the scrutiny of a fifth rate 
auditor. Some pastors make an annual pretence of giving to 
their congregations a report of receipts and expenditures for 
the year, but those who have inside knowledge of the making 
up of such reports know that they are monumental pieces of 
deception. Many priests never even make a pretence of re- 
porting. Sometimes nominal trustees are appointed for a 
" blind," but in reality the laity have no voice in the temporal af- 
fairs of their parish. They dare not ask for a complete finan- 
cial report. All they can do is " to pay up and shut up." It 
hardly requires any special penetration to see what an oppor- 
tunity for grafting such a condition of things affords a mer- 
cenary priest. 

My observations lead me to the conclusion that not two 
per cent, of the parochial school principals could pass an or- 
dinary examination for a public school principal. 

The public school excels the parochial school in com- 
pelling its principals and assistant principals to observe in 
public life a higher ethical standard than that followed by the 
parochial school principals and assistant principals. If the 
principal of a Chicago public school got drunk, or if he were 



PRINCIPALS. 20I 

discovered to be a silent partner in a liquor saloon, he would 
be ousted. This is not the case with the parochial school prin- 
cipal. Charges of immorality against a public school prin- 
cipal would be sifted to the bottom ; such charges against paro- 
chial school principals are thrown into wastebaskets. 

I venture to say that no public school principal who was 
known to have ever been guilty of immorality could hope to 
obtain a position again anywhere in the United States. His 
offence would be a perpetual bar. This is not at all the case 
with an immoral parochial school principal. 

If a priest gives public scandal, he is whitewashed by his 
bishop, or he is sent, perhaps, to make a religious retreat for 
a few days, and then he returns to his parish, or he is trans- 
ferred to another parish in that diocese, or he is sent to some 
other diocese where he may assume another name to escape 
the service of criminal or civil process. This course in effect 
means no punishment for sin, and it affords no protection to 
the Catholic people from ecclesiastical rascals. In an Ameri- 
can Archdiocese a pastor, who had a parochial school, se- 
duced his ward; he was denounced publicly in his church at 
Sunday morning Mass ; but he was simply transferred to an- 
other parish. The same treatment was accorded by his ec- 
clesiastical superiors to a priestly sodomite. If a priest runs 
away with a woman he still retains his priestly faculties ; and 
if he deserts her and seeks an appointment he has no particular 
difficulty in securing a parish, even though they had been 
legally married. 

Failure to punish sinning priests is working incalculable 
harm to the Catholic Church. There is not a Protestant sect 
in America that deals with its immoral clergymen in this loose 
way. If a Protestant clergyman seduced a young lady, would 
he be transferred to another church ? Nay, he would be kicked 
out of his denomination. Why should Catholic priests who 
sin receive any less rigorous treatment? 

I humbly urge upon the Catholic Church the necessity 
of dealing sternly with sinful priests and prelates. A wicked 



202 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

priest, even though he repents, should never be entrusted with 
the care of souls. He should be consigned to a monastery, 
and he should never be permitted to officiate publicly at the 
altar, or to sit in the confessional — to serve as a parochial 
school superintendent, principal or assistant principal. 

Parochial School Principals Shield Each Other. 

Another point, which must not be overlooked, will help 
the public to a clearer understanding of the disabilities of the 
parochial school by reason of its principals. Catholic priests 
shield each other. The immoral cleric is shielded by his moral 
as well as his immoral brother priests. This indicates the 
false code of honor which prevails in the Catholic priesthood. 
It is a code which is uncanonical and unchristian. Neverthe- 
less, it even dominates the course of decent priests and com- 
pels them to condone and cover up offences which should send 
their perpetrators to the penitentiary. How can the parochial 
school get rid of an unworthy principal when priests and pre- 
lates are his devoted protectors and champions? And this 
leads me to say that this false code should be relentlessly as- 
sailed. Publicity is purity. Secrecy is sin. 

I am happy to be able to quote the eminent Cardinal 
Manning in support of my views concerning this subject. 
From the Life of Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of West- 
minster by Edmund Sheridan Purcell, (Member of the Roman 
Academy of Letters), I quote as follows: 

Cardinal Manning himself — and that is enough — has laid 
down a rule against concealing the sins or shortcomings of 
Bishops and others in the following words, spoken on the oc- 
casion of his final visit to Rome in 1883, to Pope Leo XIII : — 
"If the Evangelist did not conceal the sin and fall of Judas, 
neither ought we to conceal the sins of Bishops and of other 
personages." (Foot-note) : The Pope in his conversation 
with Cardinal Manning, reprobated the vicious system of sup- 
pressing or glossing over facts in history, sacred or profane, 
or in the lives of men, Saints or sinners, as repugnant to 



PRINCIPALS. 203 

truth and justice, and in the long run, as detrimental to the 
spiritual interests of the Church. (Vol. II., p. 755.) 

Parochial School Principals are Cheap Politicians. 

Our great American cities are cursed with municipal cor- 
ruption. From my knowledge of the undercurrent of things 
I assert that Catholic parochial school principals are at the 
bottom of American municipal corruption. They have gone 
into politics ; and they are wire pullers at the caucuses, at the 
conventions and at the primaries. They succeed into getting 
their henchmen into various civic offices. This political work 
is not done through purely benevolent motives. They make 
money out of it. A clerical politician is none other than a 
priest who is corrupt at heart. He abandons the spiritual in- 
terests committed to his care, and, consumed by an unholy de- 
sire to amass wealth, he plunges headlong into political chican- 
ery for the graft that is in it. 

" Get Rich Quick " Parochial School Principals. 

The vast majority of Catholic priests are investors in 
various " get rich quick " concerns. Gold, silver and copper 
mines are very attractive to them, and in many of these mines 
the only ore is the coin put in by the mercenary priests and 
other gullible people. The more knowing priests do not in- 
vest, but give the use of their names for blocks of stock ; and 
prospectuses are prepared containing copies of signed letters 
of endorsement by these God-fearing ecclesiastics. This print- 
ed matter is sent to their parishioners, and on the stock sold 
to them these pastors receive a commission. Often these cler- 
ics personally solicit or advise their parishioners to invest in 
speculative stocks, and the properties may exist on paper only. 
These priests are frequently directors in these mining corpora- 
tions, and church presbyteries often serve for meeting places 
for the boards of directors. 

These pastors often have parishes overwhelmed with debts 
which run into many thousands of dollars, and they continually 
cry for money. Sunday after Sunday they command their 



204 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

people to give money. Money, indee'd, is their only gospel! 
When they are not at home their assistants take up the cry, 
and woe betides them if they do not cry lustily, for the pastor's 
relatives report any half-heartedness. What becomes of the 
money? Ask the pastor, not the people — the people do not 
know. The money goes into the bank accounts of the rector 
and his relatives, and it is used for all kinds of speculations. 
From reliable data I am convinced that over fifty per cent of 
the Catholic clergy are investors in " get rich quick " schemes. 
Many of them are investors in listed speculative stocks, and 
their first office in the morning is to examine the stock quota- 
tions. When the market goes against them they usually an- 
nounce a special collection on the following Sunday for some 
special object, such as prospective repairs to the church, or 
to the presbytery, or to the parochial school building. 

A few years ago there were two brothers who formed a 
mining company. They belonged to a most prominent parish, 
which was conducted by a Religious Order. They made gen- 
erous contributions to all the collections, and liberally patron- 
ized the parish fair, picnics and dances. They gave the pastor 
blocks of stock for his recommendation of their mining scheme ; 
and men of that parish and of the adjacent parishes bought 
mining stock. Men mortgaged their homes to obtain money 
to invest. Suddenly it was ascertained that the wonderful 
mine was simply a hole in the ground. Brave, noble women 
of the parish went en masse to the presbytery, rang the bell, 
and, no response being made, broke in the door and horse- 
whipped the pastor, who was the head of the Religious Com- 
munity. There was press publicity of the assault, but there 
was no legal prosecution. This pastor is an Examiner of 
the Clergy. 

Liberal Patrons of the Arts and Sciences at World's 

Fairs. 

A multitude of priests attended the World's Fair which 
was held in Chicago in 1893. They sought the educating and 



PRINCIPALS. 205 

refining influences of that " White City." Their parishioners 
were glad to see them go to it, and contributed towards their 
expenses. The majority of these clerical visitors behaved in 
a scandalous way. They frequented houses of shame ; they 
patronized gambling dens ; many of them were arrested and 
booked under fictitious names. Some of them got crazy drunk 
in their hotels and ran around the corridors naked. Neverthe- 
less, some of these ecclesiastical sinners officiated on Sundays 
in the various Chicago churches, kindly substituting for their 
brethren who had gone elsewhere for a summer's recreation. 

From the data which I have received the harlots of St. 
Louis, during the great fair now in progress there, are getting 
a greater percentage of patronage from Catholic parochial 
school principals and assistant principals than from the male 
sinners of any other vocation, occupation or profession. 

In this connection I relate a conversation I had with 
a most prominent American archbishop, who is, indeed, an 
aspirant to a seat in the College of Cardinals. m I said to him : 
" Your Grace, as I was going to my hotel last night a hack- 
man said : ' How are things coming with you, father ? ' I 
said to the hackman : ' Very well ! ' He said : ' You are up 
against a tough proposition ; the priests are a tough bunch.' 
I said : ' What do you know about them ? ' He said : ' I have 
not been a hackman for the last twenty years right down in 
the heart of the city without knowing a good deal about them ; 
I frequently drive them down to the levee district at night, and 
whenever I. take one down I can sleep for a month.' I said: 
1 What do you mean by that ? ' He said : ' I get a rake off 
from the house of ill-fame, a certain percentage.' I said : ' A 
percentage of what ? ' He said : ' A percentage of the amount 
which he spends in the house.' I said: ' In what way?' He 
said : ' On the girls, buying wine for the girls, setting up the 
can-can, and for the other things which go with such doings ; 
the priests are the best spenders I meet; their money comes 
easy and they let it go easy.' I said : ' How do you reckon 
your percentage from the house ? ' He said : ' I size the fel- 



206 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

low up pretty well ; I have an idea of how much he wants, 
and of how much he is going to spend; and the people who 
run those houses are pretty square people ; any way they know 
that if they don't deal square with us we will take the business 
to some other house, so you see they have got to be on the 
square with us.' " This hackman was a Catholic. I then 
told the Archbishop about another case. I said : " A Catholic 
hackman stopped me a short time ago and said : ' How are 
the boys getting on, Father ? ' I said : ' What boys ? ' He 
said : ' The priests.' I said : ' I believe they are improving ! ! ' 
He said : ' It is pretty hard to change them ; they are a tough 
class ; it is little the people know about them ; in fact if you 
tell them anything about them they won't believe it ; they will 
call you an A. P. A. if you tell them anything about their 
clergy ; when I was a boy I attended the Catholic schools in 
this city, and at that time I, too, would not believe anything 
bad about them, but after I got into the hack business my eyes 
were opened. One night I was engaged by a few gentlemen 
to take them down the line onto Wabash Avenue to a certain 
house of ill- fame ; I drove them there ; they got out of the car- 
riage and paid me for my services, and I waited awhile and 
went then right into the house to get my percentage for bring- 
ing them there ; well, good God, to my great surprise who 
should come down the stairs but a priest of my then parish, 
and now a prominent Chicago pastor ; he said to me : ' Hello 
there, Patrick, what are you doing around here ? ' Then I 
screwed up my courage and I said : ' I am here on business ; 
what are you doing around here ? ' He said : ' I am here see- 
ing the sights.' Now, I tell you, father, that was my first eye- 
opener, and my eyes have been kept open ever since ; but when 
I told that to some of my friends they did not believe me and 
called me all sorts of names and warned me against giving 
scandal by telling that to anybody else, and they said that if 
I did I would get into trouble ; so realizing how hard it is to 
persuade the Catholic people that there is anything wrong with 



PRINCIPALS. 207 

these fellows I made up my mind that the best thing I could 
do was to keep my mouth shut." 

The Archbishop then told me about one of his experiences. 
He said : " Yes, hackmen know a great deal about us ; they 
have seen a lot ; they are in a way to see it ; why, down at my 
former diocese there were two hackmen, father and son, who 
were Catholics once, but owing to what they saw amongst the 
clergy they lost the faith. When the old man was dying, 
his wife, unknown to him, sent for me to give him the last 
rites of the Church ; I went there, and as I was entering the 
door of his bedroom the old man cried out : ' For God's sake, 
don't come into this room ! I don't want you ! ' I said : 
' Don't you want me, aren't you dying ? ' He said : ' Yes, I am 
dying, but I am at peace with my God, with my country and 
with myself, and I don't want to have anything to do with 
you nor the likes of you;. I know too much about priests; I 
have driven lots of them to bad houses ; for God's sake, don't 
come in ! I don't want to be reminded by your presence of 
those things now when I am dying ! ' I saw that the old man 
was thoroughly in earnest, and, not caring to debate the mat- 
ter with him for fear the people in the house might overhear 
what he had to say, I turned on my heel and walked away." 
The Archbishop continued : " Hackmen, policemen, firemen, 
street car and railway men know a great deal about us ; they 
see a great deal, they are in the way of knowing it, but for- 
tunately the poor fellows keep it to themselves." 

The fact is that when a man of any of the foregoing classes 
dies, his pastor and the assistants exert themselves to show 
all possible honor to his memory, particularly by the delivery 
of a most flattering funeral sermon. If the deceased died with- 
out the last sacraments, or even refused them, greater exer- 
tions are made. These honors are paid to the deceased to 
shut the mouths of his relatives in case he may have told them 
of the clerical misconduct he had seen. High church digni- 
taries often grace these funeral occasions. 



208 the parochial school. 

Nautical Clerics. 

In the United States there are parochial school principals 
who are very fond of the water. They enjoy trips on the pala- 
tial steamers which ride the waters of the inland lakes, the 
great rivers and the ocean. They are also much given to 
yachting. During the summer time their health, impaired by 
arduous service in their parochial schools, demands frequent 
visits to the various beaches. I have heard fanatics predict 
that the Atlantic coast would be submerged some day as a 
punishment by an offended God ; I have been amused by their 
weird predictions ; but as I think of the immorality and bes- 
tiality of these nautical clerics, records galore being in my pos- 
session, I really marvel that such a cataclysm does not happen. 

Catholic travelers, watch the priest on shipboard ! Watch 
him closely! If you will look sharply you will see a priest 
and a woman. He may call her his " sister," or " niece/' or 
" cousin," but as a rule she is not. 

The officers of the Atlantic liners tell many sickening facts 
in connection with nautical clerics. Many an ecclesiastical 
voyager has found himself in irons before the end of the voy- 
age to protect the passengers and himself from his drunken 
frenzy. 

What these nautical clerics do not know about poker and 
other gambling games on their voyages Satan does not know. 
They usually travel incognito in both dress and name, but when 
the liquor gets into them they betray their clerical character 
by attempting to assert their priestly jurisdiction. 

Dealers in Smut. 

There are priests in America who are considered special- 
ists in retailing smutty stories, the foundations of which they 
learn in the confessional. 

In Catholic theological seminaries in America students 
form associations (not sanctioned by the seminary authorities) 
in which membership depends upon the applicant's ability to 



PRINCIPALS. 209 

tell stories of a prescribed degree of nastiness. A priest told 
me that it took him three years to get admitted. 

Brazen Hypocrites. 

There are Catholic priests and prelates who are at the 
head of various Catholic temperance societies, and others who 
are famed as temperance advocates, who get drunk ad libitum. 
They deliver stirring addresses at temperance meetings, and 
then they are put to bed the same night drunk. 

Catholic priests in America impose severe penance upon 
penitents who have eaten meat on proscribed days, but these 
priests do not scruple when they are outside of their parishes 
(and inside when the housekeeper is trustworthy) to break 
the law of the Church concerning days of fasting and absti- 
nence, and many of them even break their fast before they say 
Mass. 

Some priests, who have a little conscience left, and who 
have not wholly lost the faith, winter in Mexico where the 
Church permits Catholics to eat meat on those proscribed 
days — even on Friday! 

Malodorous Pedagogic Samples. 

So far I have discussed in a general way the principals 
and the assistant principals of the parochial schools. I now 
deal specifically with some of these clerical educators, designat- 
ing each by a numeral and some suggested title. The cases 
I describe I have selected at random from the hundreds which 
I have listed. They are but average samples, and are scattered 
over America. 

My readers may wonder why I do not give the names and 
addresses of these clerical sinners, and of other wicked ec- 
clesiastics to whom I have referred. I do not do so out of 
regard for the opinion of my advisers. My clerical counsellors 
assert that since many, if not all, of these names are now on 
file in formal charges at the Vatican, and since the present 
Pope, Pius X., has hardly had an adequate opportunity to 



210 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

familiarize himself with the details of these charges, in order 
to canonically deal with the accused, it would be disrespectful 
to His Holiness to give to the world the names and addresses. 
My lay counsellors solemnly declare that there is grave like- 
lihood that such publicity would lead to the burning of churches 
and the lynching of priests by an infuriated Catholic people. 

It will be noticed that I describe some of these cases at 
greater length than others. The shorter length is not due 
to a lack of material. I do not care to nauseate my readers, 
and so I give a few cases at greater length simply to illustrate 
what might be said about each of these malodorous peda- 
gogues. 

The cases which I now cite may seem improbable to my 
readers by reason of their awfulness ; but I solemnly declare 
that I am conservative in my statements, and that the cases 
which I now describe are in reality infinitely worse than they 
appear here. 

If I should give the full story in every day speech con- 
cerning each of these malodorous pedagogic samples, this book 
would be so nasty that it could not be circulated. It is my 
desire to tell the truth in chaste language, and, therefore, I take 
as my literary guides the celebrated Catholic historians, Dr. 
Alzog and Dr. Pastor (from whose works I quoted in Chapter 
III), and I trust that my descriptions of clerical depravi- 
ty will equal in refinement the similar portrayals of these emi- 
nent authors. 

Rev. No. i. A Forger. 

In the autumn of 1903 a priest of international repute dis- 
appeared. He had robbed his parish and Archdiocese of about 
$750,000, and this largely through forging the name of his 
Archbishop. 

Why is he not prosecuted? Why is he not punished in 
conformity with the canons of the Church ? Is it possible that 
he knows some startling things which his Archbishop fears he 
might reveal to the world? Can it be that even now he is 
drawing hush money from his Archdiocese ? 



PRINCIPALS. 211 

October 16th, 1901, he offered me $50,000 to induce me not 
to expose his dual life in any forthcoming book. I said to 
him then : " If you dare to make that offer to me again I will 
take you by the nape of the neck to the police station." At 
that time he was living in adultery with a married woman 
whom he had estranged from her husband and established in 
a palatial home. 

He was an ardent champion of the parochial school and 
a fierce denunciator of the American policy in the Philippines. 
He was the principal of a parochial school which had 21 nuns 
and 750 pupils. 

His influence was eagerly sought by politicians, and he 
was once urged to run for Congress. 

Since he has become a fugitive he has been teaching in a 
Catholic college, and has been giving missions, under an as- 
sumed name, to convert Protestants. 

Rev. No. 2. — A National Character. 

His parochial school has over a thousand pupils. In the 
winter season he is very fond of providing sleighing parties 
for the young ladies of his school, and he^always arranges it 
so that there is a lack of at least one seat. The consequence is 
that one young lady rides in the pastor's lap. This rector is 
one of the most lecherous of the lewd members of the priest- 
hood. 

He constantly attends and " plays " the races. He won 
$60,000 on one race. He is an habitue of race-tracks, gambling 
houses and brothels. He is a national character. 

His " O. K." is omnipotent. Gamblers have to secure it 
in order to run their houses in his section of his city ; and can- 
didates for the priesthood have to obtain it to get ordained. 

This man has been guilty, on land and sea, of unprintable 
lewdness. He presented one of his mistresses with a belt, each 
link being a twenty-dollar gold piece. He is reputed to be 
worth about a million dollars. 



212 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Caught in flagrante delicto he said : " I never believed in 
celibacy, I never preached it, never practiced it, and never will. 
It's a humbug." 

Rev. No. j. A Lover of Fast Horses and Fast Women. 

He has in his parochial school over 1,500 children. He 
keeps a city house and a country residence. He is devoted 
to fast horses and fast women. In the country he is known 
as " Mr. West " ; and one of his temporary better halves as 
" Mrs. West." 

Rev. No. 4. A Grocer. 

He is a priest who eloped with a young woman. He is 
living with her and running a grocery. She has borne him 
three children. He said Mass the morning the first baby was 
born. . Any time he will abandon the woman he can return 
to parochial school duties, for " Once a priest always a priest." 

In the parish from which he eloped the parochial school 
had over 600 pupils. 

His name appears in the issue of the Catholic Directory 
and Clergy List of 1904, although his ecclesiastical superiors 
are fully aware of his misconduct. 

After his elopement he solicited offerings by mail for 
Masses for souls in purgatory and undoubtedly made a nice 
little sum in this way. 

Rev. No. 5. A Pugilist. 

After his ordination he served as an assistant pastor in 
numerous parishes, where he acted as assistant parochial 
school principal. 

He was finally appointed pastor of a country parish and 
its outlying missions, which parish had been vacant nine 
months on account of the sudden disappearance of its rector, 
who had been drunk most of the time for five years and who 
was accused of a criminal assault upon two little girls. 

At his first appearance he told the people from the altar 



PRINCIPALS. 213 

during Mass that they had a very bad name with the Arch- 
bishop and priests of the Archdiocese, so bad, in fact, that 
priests did not care to come and labor among them ; that he 
was the only priest with sufficient zeal and faith to volunteer 
to undertake the work of the cure of their souls, and that if 
they interfered in any way with his plans or reported him 
to headquarters he would lock up the church, leave the place 
and they would never get another pastor. This cowed the 
people. He succeeded, by underhand means, in getting an- 
other town attached to his parish. This gave him a large ter- 
ritory for his operations. He adopted every means to raise 
money. He held missions, fairs, picnics, sociables, euchre 
parties and barn dances, which he advertised through the 
parish by hand-bills, placards, and the press. Depraved women 
came from surrounding cities to his entertainments and helped 
to sell his tickets and make, his enterprises successful. These 
abandoned women covertly plied their shameless arts at these 
undertakings. When some of the good people remonstrated 
with him, he replied with an oath : " It is not my business 
to look into the character of people ; what I am after is 
money for God's Church." Just after one of his fairs was 
opened, four most respectable young ladies, finding a woman 
of doubtful character in charge of a booth, went to him and 
gave him their booth books and said : " We cannot have any- 
thing to do with this fair ; it is a scandal ; we cannot associate 
with abandoned people." He replied : " It is none of our 
business ; it is not for you or for me to question the character 
of people ; what we want to do is to make money for the 
Church." At one of his church fair dances an intoxicated 
stranger asked a young lady of the congregation to dance with 
him. She declined, and he staggered over to the Reverend 
Father and promised to give ten dollars to the fair if he would 
induce the young lady to comply. The pastor urged the 
young lady to dance with this man, telling her that her re- 
fusal would cost him ten dollars. 



214 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

He expelled a number of children from his Sunday School, 
which was held in the church immediately before Mass, there- 
by preventing them from being present at Mass, to humiliate 
their parents for not meeting his exactions. He wrote scur- 
rilous letters to several parishioners because they did not pay 
enough to satisfy him. 

In March, 1898, he told his congregation to be ready on 
a certain Sunday to announce, on the calling of their names, 
the amounts they would contribute to pay off the church 
mortgage. The Sunday came, and during the Mass he as- 
cended the pulpit, and commenced to call the roll of his con- 
gregation. He called out three or four names, and the parties 
replied : " I will see you to-morrow, Father." He called 
back : " You will be in hell to-morrow ; damn to-morrow ; 
to-morrow be damned; I'll see you all in hell to-morrow. " 
The congregation rose to leave the church, and he cried out: 
" Go, and may the curse of God go with you ; this is damna- 
ble; this is casting pearls before swine; by the eternal God 
I'll make you do your duty." Several parishioners fainted. 

The people at one of the outlying missions bought a lot, 
for a church site, upon which there was a cottage. This cot- 
tage was sold for $49.00, which the pastor treated as his own 
money to pay for a memorial window in his own honor in 
the new church. 

At another outlying mission, in a popular contest for a 
gold watch at one of his fairs, he put on a blackboard the 
name of a prostitute with the names of three Catholic ladies, 
two of whom immediately withdrew their names, but he 
persuaded the third lady to stay in the contest on the plea that 
the money would be for God's Church. 

After having continued this course of blackguardism for 
a number of years he was promoted to a most desirable parish, 
where he commenced his administration by holding a fair, 
at which he had all kinds of gambling devices. Shortly after 
it closed he had a most prominent Paulist Father give a mis- 
sion. The Paulist Father had a "question-box," and among 



PRINCIPALS. 215 

the questions asked were : " Is it right to have gambling de- 
vices at a church fair ? ' " Should not the pastor be paid a 
definite salary ? ' " Should not a parish have trustees to man- 
age the parish finances?' The Paulist had announced that 
he would answer the questions at the evening service. The 
pastor forbade him to answer the foregoing questions. The 
pastor opened the evening service with the recitation of the 
Holy Rosary, and then retiring to the sacristy he met the 
Paulist and asked him, " Are you going to answer those 
questions ? ' " Yes, Father," was the reply. The pastor then 
struck the Paulist with his fists ; smashed his spectacles and 
knocked him down, he breaking the electric lamp in his fall, 
leaving the sacristy in darkness. The altar boys rushed from 
the sacristy into the sanctuary crying, " A fight ! a fight ! a 
fight ! ' Many of the congregation thought they were cry- 
ing " fire." The pastor quickly put on the benediction cope, 
picked up the Monstrance, which had been thrown upon the 
floor in the struggle, rushed into the sanctuary, ascended the 
steps of the altar, opened the tabernacle, took from there the 
Blessed Sacrament, placed it in the Monstrance, turned around 
to the people and dismissed them with the Benediction of the 
Most Holy Sacrament. Over a third of the congregation were 
Protestants, who were curious to hear the sermon of the Rev- 
erend Missionary, the Paulist's work being especially the con- 
version of Protestants to the Catholic faith. 

This pugilistic pastor has refused to pay his debts ; he 
has involved his parish ; and he has blackguarded his people. 
His congregation recently demanded, by a signed petition ac- 
companied by grave charges, that he be removed, but his Arch- 
bishop ignored this demand, and the priest still has the cure 
of their souls. 

In his late parish he claimed that a parishioner, who 
was a poor man and eighty years of age, owed him six dol- 
lars pew rent, and he demanded the money. The old man re- 
sponded, " I have no money, father, except twenty-five cents." 
The pastor replied, " I see you have the ' Lives of the Saints ' 



2l6 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

here, and I will take these books for the pew rent." The old 
man exclaimed, " Why, father, you surely would not take them 
from me ! They are the only comfort I have during the long 
days and dreary nights." The pastor replied, " I must have 
my pew rent. Bring them up to the presbytery." The feeble 
old man obeyed the command of his Reverend Father in God. 
The six volumes had cost him over nine dollars. 

He is the principal of a parochial school which has over 
300 children enrolled. 

Rev. No. 6. — A Fiend. 

He is a priest who ravished a defenceless fifteen-year-old 
orphan, who had just arrived from Ireland. He committed the 
crime in his parochial school hall, where he was in the habit 
of offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the children of 
the parish. He kept her in his power through fear. Finally 
he forced her into public prostitution, and he often visits her 
for immoral purposes in her abode of shame. 

He has an honorable place in the published list of the 
Catholic clergy of his Archdiocese. She is numbered among 
the inmates of a brothel. He is beloved as a " Reverend 
Father in God." She is loathed as a common harlot. 

Rev. No. 7. — A Doctor of Medicine. 

In 1899 he was sent to one of the most prominent parishes 
in America. He was appointed second assistant pastor, and 
was put in immediate charge of the parochial school, which 
had about six hundred pupils. In 1902 he was charged with 
a number of penitentiary offences. 

The pastor of the parish tried for one year to see the 
Archbishop about this unworthy assistant, but the stereotyped 
reply of the Archbishop's valet was : " You can't see him. 
He is in the country." 

Finally this assistant was charged in a sworn affidavit 
with having committed an indecent assault upon a beautiful 
young lady, who was taken suddenly ill, and to whom he was 



PRINCIPALS. 217 

called to administer the last rites of the Church. While hear- 
ing her confession he told her that he was " a doctor as well 
as a priest, and spoke about the female anatomy and sexual 
matters," and to her great shame and resentment made a 
digital examination. He then gave her the Sacraments. 

He was the spiritual director of the parochial school and 
was in the habit of visiting it daily. He would sit in the seats 
with the young girls. One day he asked one of the girls how 
she felt. She replied : " I have a pain in my hip." He said : 
" Come with me and I will cure you." He took her into the 
parochial residence, placed her on a lounge, exposed her per- 
son and indecently rubbed her with holy water, telling her 
that whenever she had a pain like that to come to him and he 
would treat her. The little girl told the nun who taught her 
in the school, and the nun reported it to the pastor. He should 
have been indicted for a criminal assault. 

On one occasion a father, on returning from business in 
the evening, found his little girl on the lap of this priest, who 
was taking indecent liberties with her. Said the parent : " My 
God! Father, what is the meaning of this? what are you do- 
ing ? ' 'I am preparing her for her First Holy Communion," 
was the response of the assistant principal of the parochial 
school. The parent ordered the priest from his house, and 
threatened to kill him if he ever visited his home again. The 
Church authorities were made acquainted with the foregoing 
and other incidents of his depravity, and fearing that he would 
be arrested or lynched they punished him by promoting him 
to the position of assistant pastor in a neighboring parish ! ! ! 
This man is still preparing children for their first Holy Com- 
munion ! ! ! 

Rev. No. 8. A Sot. 

He was appointed pastor of a church in 1901. It was 
known to many priests that he was an habitual drunkard. He 
was frequently found wandering on the streets intoxicated, 
and was carried by policemen to police stations. He was un- 



2l8 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

der the influence of liquor the very day he got his appoint- 
ment, and his clerical friends did what they could to sober 
him sufficiently to be presentable at the Archiepiscopal Palace, 
to which he was called by a telegram. He left at n A. M., 
received his pastoral appointment at noon, did not return, 
and was found by the police at midnight lying dead drunk in 
an alley. 

About three months previous to the above incident he was 
serving as an assistant pastor and was charged with the duty 
of preparing children for Confirmation. The Confirmation 
Sunday came and brought his Archbishop, who was accom- 
panied by a numerous retinue composed of priests, bands of 
music and a squad of cavalry. At n o'clock on the previous 
day Rev. No. 8 procured a jug of whiskey, at once went to 
bed with it and got so crazy drunk that the other assistant 
pastors and the housekeeper had to hold him in bed, from 
which, when he heard the music on Sunday, he made frantic 
efforts to escape though clad only in his nakedness, deter- 
mined to take an active part in the enthusiastic welcoming of 
the Archbishop by the good people of the parish. 

The first Sunday he was to say Mass as pastor he was 
too drunk to appear, and having secured no other priest the 
good people were deprived of divine service. He was too 
drunk to appear on the following Sunday and failed to pro- 
cure a substitute, but his ecclesiastical friends came to his 
rescue and had present a Carmelite Father who said Mass. 
A few months later he was found lying on the street in a help- 
less state of intoxication in one of the most disreputable dis- 
tricts of the city, and was removed by the police to the police 
station and kept over night under the name of " John Doe." 
He escaped appearing on the following morning among the 
" drunks," as he had escaped on former occasions, through 
the effective political influence of Church officials. This last 
episode was one of the many things reported to Cardinal Mar- 
tinelli by the Catholic Laymen's Association of Chicago. 



PRINCIPALS. 219 

Rev. No. 8 does not believe in lay trustees for parish 
property. He is the principal of a parochial school which has 
enrolled over 350 pupils. 

Rev. No. 9. — A Gospel Pitcher. 

He was so drunk on a number of occasions while offici- 
ating at Mass that his parishioners had to remove him from 
the Sanctuary. On one Christmas morning his parishioners 
had to remove him from the altar and put him to bed. 

At one time during Mass on a Sunday he took the Book 
of the Epistles and Gospels in his hand and staggering around 
on the altar, while turning the leaves, he suddenly said : ' The 
Gospel for the Sunday is taken from — ah ! O, h — 1, I can't 
find it, there is the d — n book, find it yourselves ! " and he then 
hurled the Holy Book at the congregation. The good people 
were scandalized beyond description, and at once went to their 
homes broken hearted. On another occasion he read the Gos- 
pel of the Sunday, and then said: " Do you believe that? 
Well, I'll be d — if I do. Since you believe it, here's the d — 
book, take it ! " and he threw the book of the Epistles and 
Gospels at the congregation. Before he was appointed to this 
parish he had been in charge of several parishes, where he 
scandalized the faithful by his vices. Complaints were con- 
stantly made about him to his ecclesiastical superiors, but to 
no avail. 

At one parish his boon companion was a colored porter 
of a barber shop, whom he would take into the church and 
vest, and the colored porter would walk around the altar pre- 
tending to officiate, while the priest rang the altar bell. Of 
course they were both drunk. His parishioners charged him 
also with undue intimacy with a certain woman. After some 
time he was promoted ! ! 

About the middle of February, 1904, he was in an in- 
toxicated condition in a leading Chicago hotel, and boasted 
of having been to houses of ill-repute. A Catholic bystander 
said to him : ' You ought to respect the Roman collar you 



220 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

wear; the people can see by that that you are a priest." He 
replied : " A priest ! a priest ! why, I am a priest, and I don't 
give a G — d — who knows it." The bystander said : " You 
ought to take off that collar." " O, h — ," he said, " that's my 
trade-mark ! " 

A parochial school which has this principal can hardly 
be open to congratulations. 

Rev. No. 10. — A Wounded Veteran. 

At a certain Sunday Mass in the summer of 1901 he ap- 
peared before his congregation with a bandaged wound in his 
forehead, which he had received in a house of ill-repute, where 
he had also been robbed of his valuables. The house was 
" pulled " by the police, and he was among the guests. At the 
police station he was given medical attention. In 1902 
the piety, zeal and efficiency of this wounded soldier of Christ 
received due recognition and reward by his appointment to an 
important parish in an aristocratic suburb. 

He is a devotee of four goddesses — Bacchus, Venus, Graft 
and Gambling. 

Rev. No. 11. — A Hatband Lover. 

He is now an assistant pastor. About six years ago he 
fell in love with a young nun, who was beautiful and accom- 
plished. She was the music teacher at a female academy. 
They carried on an amorous correspondence. Appointments 
were made and kept. Sometimes they met at the house of his 
mother; and at other times elsewhere. Ingenious methods 
were practiced to arrange these assignations. He visited the 
convent to say Mass and to give Benediction and spiritual 
instruction to the sisters and children ; and he hung his hat 
in a certain place, and then the musical nun would quietly 
slip out of the chapel during the devotions and go to his hat 
and find under the inside band a loving missive. She would 
then go to her cell and read her love letter, and pen one to her 



PRINCIPALS. 221 

clerical lover in which she would designate a time and place 
for their meeting, and then put it under his hatband. 

On one occasion a Bishop accompanied him to the female 
academy. Their hats were alike. When the Bishop put on 
his hat he discovered that it was too small, and on investigat- 
ing he found a letter under the hatband. He was kind enough 
to give the letter to Rev. No. n instead of attempting to keep 
the appointment himself. The nuns knew of this intimacy, 
and there was a good deal of tittle-tattle which came to the 
ears of Rev. No. n, who threatened the Mother Superioress 
with all kinds of revelations if she did not silence the gossip. 
He said to the good Mother : " How can I help it if one of 
your nuns falls in love with me ?■" A conscientious nun 
wrote to Cardinal Martinelli, then Apostolic Delegate, at Wash- 
ington, D. C, and revealed the corrupt condition of things. 
The pastor of the parish was ordered to make an immediate 
and searching investigation. He made a judicious inquiry, 
and reported to Cardinal Martinelli that the priest had fallen 
from grace. 

At this opportune time a priest was needed to act as as- 
sistant pastor and spiritual director of the Young Ladies' 
Sodality in the Cathedral parish, and Rev. No. n, regardless 
of his bad record, was installed. The charms that smote the 
nun have had a similar effect upon a number of the young 
ladies of the sodality, and a great deal of scandal has been the 
result. 

He is the spiritual director of about a thousand sodality 
young ladies, and he is assistant principal of a parochial school 
which has enrolled about thirteen hundred pupils. 

Rev. No. 12. — A Wolf in Priest's Clothing. 

He gave instructions for First Holy Communion to a 
motherless girl, aged thirteen years, who was accompanied 
by a girl of about the same age. He sat between the girls, 
who were standing up, and suddenly took indecent liberties 
with the orphan. The little girl was shocked, went home cry- 



222 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

ing and told her married sister, with whom she lived, what 
had happened. This offence was brought to the attention of 
his Archbishop by affidavits made by both children and the 
married sister. The Archbishop referred the whole matter to 
his Auxiliary, who held a white-washing investigation. 

Rev. No. 12 left the parish upon the advice of certain 
ecclesiastical dignitaries. He was an honored guest at one 
of the oldest and most prominent convents in America, 
where young candidates for the sisterhood are instructed and 
where there is a very large female academy for Catholics and 
non-Catholics. He lived in continual fear of being shot by the 
father of the little orphan, or of being brought before the bar 
of the Criminal Court. He was persuaded to go to Europe 
by his friends, who were glad to get him out of the country 
for fear that he would be caught by the law and would tell 
tales. At this time he was having criminal relations with a 
young woman who was the dear friend of one of the mis- 
tresses of a certain member of the Episcopate, and who is 
referred to in a certain affidavit (sent to Rome) as having 
become a mother by His Lordship. He was provided with 
one thousand dollars when he left America. He went to Ire- 
land. He tried to seduce a young American girl (who was 
traveling with her uncle) in the Victoria Hotel, Cork. He re- 
turned to America after a few months, and through the good 

offices of his friends he was provided with a home at St. , 

appointed assistant pastor of a city parish, where he heard con- 
fessions, said Mass and performed other priestly functions. 
The Bishop came to this church to confirm a class of children. 
He was assisted principally by Rev. No. 12 who wiped from 
the foreheads of the innocent boys and girls the holy oil placed 
by the Bishop's hand. The good people present, who knew 
some of the unsavory facts, were indescribably shocked. 

While spiritual director of a young ladies' sodality he 
seduced one of its most prominent officers, and promised her 
that when he secured a parish of his own he would make her 



PRINCIPALS. 223 

his housekeeper and they would then live as husband and wife. 
He acted as her confessor while committing sin with her. 

From 1893 to about 1900 he was an assistant pastor. 
Part of this time he was a professor in a female academy, and 
he was in the habit of having some of the boarders in the 
academy visit him in his private rooms in the presbytery, where 
he kissed them and took other liberties, frequently having 
some of his brother priests present. 

In 1903 he was appointed pastor of a fashionable rural 
parish, where he immediately commenced and carried to com- 
pletion the erection of a large parochial residence, provided 
with a goodly number of bedrooms. He entertains quite lav- 
ishly, among his guests being some drunken and immoral 
broken down priests who have all their clerical faculties but 
no appointments, and during this last summer one of those 
reverend guests visited Catholic families in the neighboring 
metropolis and invited their daughters to spend the summer 
in the new presbytery, painting it as a delightful vacation re- 
sort and so situated that a morning dive could be taken from 
it into the waters of a placid lake. I personally advised Cath- 
olic parents not to allow their daughters to accept the invita- 
tion for I well knew that it was extended by lust. 

Rev. No. jj. — A Ballad Singer. 

While he w?s an assistant pastor a scandal arose con- 
necting his name with one of his female parishioners, in con- 
sequence of which he was transferred to an adjacent parish. 

An important parish, in which is located a prominent fe- 
male academy, became vacant, and he was promoted to it. 
Worthy priests, when this appointment was announced, ex- 
claimed : " Behold the priest who has been selected to guide 
the sisters and pupils in the ways of chastity ! ! ! " 

He has appeared many times before the .public, with ec- 
clesiastics of his ilk, in the role of a ballad singer. 

He rarely appears in public in the garb of a priest — his 
dress is usually secular. 



224 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

There are on file at the Vatican the most serious charges 
against him. 

Money is his god and Venus is his goddess. 

In his parochial school there are enrolled over 500 chil- 
dren; and the female academy has over 300 pupils, a number 
of them being Protestants. 

Rev. No. 14. Celibacy Inexpedient. 

This priest has an international reputation. I now give 
a translation of an affidavit in Latin which was filed at Rome 
against him, but no attention has as yet been paid to it by the 
Vatican : 

makes oath and says : I am a priest of the Arch- 
diocese of and was lately appointed Rector of a Church 

in the same Archdiocese. I was Assistant Rector of the 

Church of for about thirteen years. During all these 

years I lived in the same house and sat at the same table with 
the Rector, Rev. . During at least two years the afore- 
said Rev. was an intimate friend and faithful adviser 

of the Rt. Rev. , Auxiliary Bishop of . 

Of my own accord and of my own knowledge I bear tes- 
timony to the following facts : The aforesaid lived 

the life of a layman rather than that of a priest. His associates 
and friends are certain priests of doubtful character and some 
from among the laity against whom again and again grave 
charges have been publicly made. 

For twelve whole days in a year he has not lived in his 
parish. For ten years, clad in secular dress, he spent a night, 
nobody knew where, away from his house, once in every week. 
It is certain that he frequently lied about the circumstances. 

For twelve years he never missed the festivity called Mar- 
di Gras in the City of New Orleans, which is one thousand 
miles from Chicago. 

He lived for at least two months in the year not only 
away from his parish but away from the Diocese. 

To my knowledge and that of my associates the Rev. 
rarely said the Divine Office nor did he hear confes- 
sions except two hours in a year. 

For ten years he had the Stations of the Cross in his 
church without canonical erection. 



PRINCIPALS. 225 

He made sport of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of 
Jesus. 

In the hearing of myself and companion, Rev. 

priest of the Archdiocese of Rev. has main- 
tained that carnal intercourse of priests with women of ill- 
fame is not to be held as a sin, provided they do not cohabit 
with the women of their own parishes. 

The intimate companion and mistress of Rev. 

is , who publicly maintains that the celibacy of priests 

is inexpedient if not impossible. Again and again I found 

Rev. and in a bed room with the door closed. 

The circumstances were such that no doubt remained but that 
they met there for an immoral purpose. The sister of Rev. 
was grieved at the visits of this woman, but neverthe- 
less they were continued. 

(Signed) 



Subscribed and sworn to before me April 17, 1902. 



[Seal.] Notary Public. 

Rev. No. 14 tells his parishioners from the altar : " It 
is none of your business what I do. You don't have to do as 
I do. You do as I say and not as I do." 

Rev. No. 15. — A Festive Fellow. 

He is a pastor of very loose morals. He associates with 
what are vulgarly known as :< sporting characters." At 10 
o'clock on the night of July 25, 1902, accompanied by a lewd 
woman, he went into a fashionable restaurant, and remained 
with her several hours in a private wine room. They left 
at 12 : 30 A. M. and got into a " runabout " that had 
remained hitched for them all that time. They drove furiously 
through the streets, the woman holding the reins and he hold- 
ing her around the waist. The woman was a beautiful per- 
oxide blonde, about twenty-five years of age, and had dia- 
monds in her ears. 

At the Silver Jubilee of his church a bishop and some 
prominent priests were present and officiated at the Solemn 
High Mass, but the pastor appeared not. He and a clerical 



226 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

friend had entered heartily into some secular ante- jubilee fes- 
tivities, and when the Sunday came he had only enough 
strength to attempt the six o'clock Low Mass. He retired 
from this ordeal completely exhausted, and was unable to be 
present at the Jubilee services at n o'clock to hear his friend, 
a Very Reverend Professor, portray him as '' a pastor justly 
celebrated for his piety, learning and efficiency, a noble man." 

Rev. No. 16. — An Equestrian Hero. 

He has been a drunkard for a third of a century. Be- 
cause of repeated scandals he has been removed from one par- 
ish to another, as a mild discipline. About five years ago he 
received a severe optical injury in a drunken spree. He was 
taken to a Catholic hospital for treatment, and from there the 
report was sent out by the good nuns that the reverend suf- 
ferer was a Christian hero — that he had been kicked by a 
horse while in the discharge of a pastoral duty ! Before his 
removal to the hospital an hotel officer made an inventory, as 
was the rule in such cases, of all the effects upon his person, 
he being unconscious, and among the valuables were found 
some rubber goods for lewd purposes. His unministerial con- 
duct was so gross that complaints were made to his Archbish- 
op, but nothing came of them. He still remains in good 
standing with his archdiocesan authorities. 

I saw him at noon, in January, 1904, on the public street, 
in zero weather, with his shoes unlaced, without collar and 
tie, shirt unbuttoned, and minus an overcoat, rushing into a 
saloon. 

He is but the representative of a large class of parochial 
school principals and assistant principals who are abject slaves 
of Bacchus and Venus. 

Rev. No. if.— A Cusp id ore Martyr. 

His transgressions against all ecclesiastical proprieties 
have been continuous. When he was an assistant priest he was 
moved from one parish to another, as no pastor could tolerate 



PRINCIPALS. 227 

him. He was drunken and immoral in his habits, and violent 
and brutal in his methods. He carries to-day a scar received 
from a former pastor who struck him with a cuspidore in self- 
defense. 

He and a clerical chum took two young girls to the pres- 
bytery of another priest, where they ruined them. These 
girls belong to prominent Catholic families. 

He was drinking in a saloon with, other priests on an 
Easter Sunday night. They discussed their Easter offerings, 
and they were so pleased with the receipts that they drank 
copious toasts to the faith of the good Catholic people, and 
finally he began to sing a High Mass. He kissed the counter 
for an altar and then turned around with extended hands and 
chanted " Domimis vobiscum" the others chanting in response 
" Et cum spiritu tuo." 

He has a large parochial school. 

Rev. No. 18. — A Dead Beat. 

Many years ago he was an assistant pastor, and by treach- 
erous conduct towards the pastor he secured a pastorate. Dur- 
ing all these years he has been a man of intemperate habits. 
By unbusinesslike methods he almost put his parish into bank- 
ruptcy. He refused to pay the builder of his late church, 
who had to sue him. His present parish is wealthy and aris- 
tocratic. 

He is a clerical dead beat, a slave of Bacchus and a lover 
of Venus. 

He has a parochial school, and is the spiritual director 
of a large female boarding academy which has many non- 
Catholic pupils. 

Rev. No. 19. — A Brewer. 

For years he was the assistant pastor of a parish located 
in the " tenderloin " district of a great city, where he gave 
free rein to his depraved instincts, consorting with prostitutes, 
gambling and getting drunk ad libitum. From many saloons 



228 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

in this parish he was evicted late at night for being drunk and 
disorderly, and for the same reason he was ejected from the 
public bar of a prominent hotel in his parish. He was in the 
habit of taking a Turkish bath at midnight to free him from 
the effects of debauch. On one occasion, in company with 
two of his sacerdotal brethren, he repaired to a leading Turk- 
ish bath establishment. Following the bath of steam and hot 
air the three retired into the same compartment and while 
naked bathed their insides with many rounds of Bass' ale. 
Their conduct became so scandalous that they were threatened 
with expulsion. Before they departed they purposely used the 
empty ale bottles for an unmentionable purpose, and the at- 
tendants, on entering the compartment and thinking the liquid 
was ale, quaffed it and were nauseated. They ran after the 
priests to do them bodily injury. That same Sunday morning 
Rev. No. 19 preached an eloquent sermon on the beauties of a 
well ordered Christian life. It produced a profound impres- 
sion, except upon some of the victims of the Bass ale outrage. 

The life of Rev. No. 19 is a travesty of our Holy Faith. 
While his Archbishop was weak in mind and body, he was ap- 
pointed rector of a large parish. On the eve of this appoint- 
ment he was ejected from a saloon late at night for outrage- 
ous conduct, it taking five men to get him out. 

He preached at the laying of the corner stone of a church, 
and in his eloquent effort he urged the people not to forget 
that the Church to-day is as it was fashioned by Christ, and 
that She cannot be both progressive and consistent; that if 
they complain of the Church they impeach Christ. (When 
corrupt Catholic clergymen refer to the Church in this man- 
ner, they mean the priesthood.) 

He was greatly irritated by the exposures in the Chicago 
controversy. A brother priest said to him : ' There is only 
one way for them to stop this; if it is not true let them sue 
Crowley!" "Well," he replied, "they can't take Crowley 
into Court ; he has told the truth ; and, anyway, it is the part 



PRINCIPALS. 229 

of a gentleman to have a good time with the ladies, to gam- 
ble and to get drunk." 

Over twelve hundred children look up to him as their 
parochial school principal. 

Rev. No. 20. — A Sodomist. 

In his early career he was an assistant at one of the lead- 
ing churches :n a great city. While there he was under grave 
suspicion of abominable misconduct, and his superiors and 
friends, fearing that he would be arrested by the civil law, to 
the scandal of the Church, promoted him to a rectorship. 
In both places he committed sodomy. He was also guilty of 
habitual drunkenness. His parishioners rose en masse and sent 
deputations to his archbishop to demand his removal. They 
submitted proofs. Their efforts were in vain. The parish- 
ioners then appealed to a neighboring bishop to help them get 
the rotten priest removed. That bishop's efforts were futile, 
and the clerical beast remained unmoved for years, a stench 
in the nostrils of the entire community. 

In 1901 he was promoted to the rectorship of a city par- 
ish, where he is now curing souls and warning the faithful 
against the " godless public schools." 

When his present parish opens its parochial school it will 
have a sodomist for its principal. 

Rev. No. 21. — A Philanthropist. 

This priest conducts an alleged charitable home and school 
for waifs. He sends " chain " letters and circulars all over the 
United States, and even abroad. The money flows in to him 
like a stream from an artesian well. His daily receipts at the 
start averaged $500, but now they are much larger, owing 
to a more systematic working of his various soliciting schemes. 
In his office a Miss B. was a faithful worker, and she toiled 
in reality for the glory of God, not receiving any salary what- 
ever. He took all of the money and wisely invested it for him- 



23O THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

self in real property, and if ever a rainy day comes he has a 
number of farms upon which to settle. He occupies a dou- 
ble building which is sumptuously furnished and electrically 
lighted, the four or five waifs occupying one of the garrets. 

The first lady of the home was a German, and on all their 
trips he passed her off as his niece, I don't know whether on 
his mother's or on his father's side. She finally married. Her 
successor made it so hot for the conscientious Miss B. that she 
appealed to him for protection, but he peremptorily sent her 
away. 

Generous people call at the institution and leave money 
for this " sweet charity," ignorant of the fact that at that very 
time the institution's hard worked head is lying in an elegant 
upper room, sleeping off the influence of Bacchus. 

Tippling priests never refuse an invitation to visit his 
institution. It beats a saloon — a greater variety, more of it, 
and nothing to pay. 

He has a barrel of whiskey so placed that he can suck its 
contents through a rubber tube while lying in bed. His cigars 
are made to order and are brandy soaked. He imports his 
wine, champagne, oysters and lobsters. He is worth thousands 
of dollars and is still making large money at the old stand. 

A former post office clerk is now confined in a peniten- 
tiary for robbing the mail of this clerical philanthropist; who 
probably escapes a like fate by " divying " with certain of his 
ecclesiastical superiors, a conclusion to which I am led in part 
by the lying advertisement of the number of waifs in his home 
which the officials of his archdiocese have inserted in his be- 
half in the Catholic Directory and Clergy List for 1904 for 
the United States and Canada. 

This philanthropic clerical swindler cries loudly " To hell 
with the public school," and he is an ardent supporter of the 
demand for State aid for parochial schools. He is now work- 
ing to secure State aid for his home and school for waifs. 



PRINCIPALS. 23I 

Rev. No. 22. — A Seductionist. 

He began his ministry in a large city. He was constantly 
found in brothels. He was sent into the country as pastor, 
and was finally promoted to a very desirable rectorship in an 
inland city, where he seduced a beautiful girl. Her father 
before his death wanted religious consolation, and his trusted 
pastor came to him and gave him the last rites of the Church. 
The dying man, tortured by the fear of leaving unprotected 
his beautiful daughters, turned to his pastor and said: 
" Father, protect and save them from all harm." The priest 
said : ' I will." The man died. The pastor had already 
seduced one of the daughters. During her absence from home, 
preceding her father's death, the pastor wrote to her the fol- 
lowing love letter: 

Aug. 24th, 1894. 
My Dearest: 

Your most affectionate and long expected letter reached 
me yesterday morning, and. its arrival and the reading of its 
contents pleased me more than any language of mine could 
adequately express. With your letter also came one from your 
father. After reading them, especially yours, which I read 
more than twenty times, I called over to your home and read 
them to your mother (of course leaving out the love part of 
it). Your mother is of course lonesome, but she is hap- 
py and encouraged under the circumstances to know that your 
own dear self is improving in health. 

Dearest, believe me when I say that you can form no 
idea of the pleasure which your letter afforded me when you 
stated that you were having a real swell time on your much 
needed vacation and your wishes to have me with you have 
often been the same as mine. But when impossibilities pre- 
vent us as at present from meeting and enjoying each other 
it thus affords me exquisite pleasure to do the next best thing, 
to write to you and to assure you that you are not forgotten, 
and that the old adage " Out of sight, out of mind " does not 
and never will hold good in our case. Had grateful thoughts 
been letters you would have received one hundred a day, but 
opportunities for letter writing have been few since the dis- 
tance between us is so great. 



232 THE PAROCHIAL SGHOOL. 

When I stated the positive truth to you in my last letter 
concerning my interview with ■ I paused before com- 
mitting my thoughts to paper for fear that they may annoy you 
on your pleasure trip but as I have never deceived you in 
the past I was not going to> deceive you now. I have always 
tried to be honest and frank in everything I said or promised 
to you and I 1 want to be so in this instance. I am glad that 
it has not annoyed you. I felt and know now that you are 
a good sensible girl and that the truth, no matter how un- 
pleasant it might be, were better known, for I could not allow 
you to be humbugged by any man living. You ask, while I 
stay by you, what need you care ; and you need not care about 
the deceptions of man or woman. The world is full of de- 
ception and the older you and I get the more we realize that 
fact. I have seen a great deal of it and often from those I 
least suspected. Honey talk and sweet smiles are cheap and 
for that reason they abound in the world, and the true friend, 
like the true diamond, is a rare jewel to find. 

Fear not, my dearest love, for I will stay by you through 
thick and thin, in joy and in sorrow. There is none on earth 
I love and cherish so much as I do you, my dearest. It makes 
my very heart bleed when I am compelled to say anything to 
you but words of tenderness and love. 

I have seen some joys and some sorrow since my advent 
here. I have labored hard and during the constant respon- 
sibilities of my ministry I have made many friends, but none 
so kind, none so true, none to whom I feel so grateful as I 
do to you, and I sincerely hope that you and I will continue 
always to love each other as we do to-day, and that nothing 
will ever break the golden chain of love that unites us so close- 
ly together. 

I made $58.30 on the concert. I will make it $75.00 and 
distribute that amount among the choir: $10.00 is for my 
dearest when she returns from rural visits. 

With kind remembrance to all and my best love to your 
own dearest, sweetest self, I remain, as ever, 

Lovingly yours, 

The young lady returned from this trip; her father died, 
and she found herself in delicate health. She went to Rev. 
No. 22 and he frightened her into doing just as he bade by 
declaring that all of her money was forfeited by her misdeed, 



PRINCIPALS. 233 

and that she would be in the poor house unless she depended 
upon him. He then get a young man to shoulder the disgrace 
and to marry her for her money. Rev. No. 22 and this fellow 
hurried down town and procured a marriage license; but her 
mother arrived at the hospital before the two villains got back, 
and then the daughter refused to be married, and violently de- 
nounced the priest, who> thereupon departed. 

His church was crowded the following Sunday morning; 
and just as he, with acolytes and incense bearers, was step- 
ping within the altar railing, a wild, shrill scream sounded 
above the tones of the organ. Instantly everything stopped. 
There at the altar stood the poor girl's mother, and pointing 
her finger in scorn at the priest she screamed : " Keep down ! 
you shall not hold service. You ruined my beautiful daughter, 
and no such false-hearted man can step into that sacred place." 
The white-haired mother was taken away by a policeman, and 
Rev. No 22 told the people that he was being blackmailed. 
The scandal was on everybody's tongue in the town. Rev. 
No. 22 was arrested for bastardy, and stood convicted before 
the people. He went to the press and tried to have the story 
suppressed, but his love letter made that impossible. 

Through the lust of this parochial school principal a 
promising life was ruined, several young women were crushed 
by a sister's shame, a mother's heart was broken, the confi- 
dence of a dead man was betrayed, and the escutcheon of our 
Holy Church was so stained that Catholics in that town hang 
their heads to-day in shame. Yet this scoundrel, instead of 
being driven by ecclesiastical authority from our sacred al- 
tars, was simply transferred to another parish where he now 
has the spiritual direction of immortal souls. 

Rev. No. 23. — A Debauchee. 

He was expelled for immorality from the seminary in 
his native diocese while studying for the priesthood. He then 
came to his present Archdiocese, and resumed his theological 
studies in its seminary. After his ordination he was ap- 



234 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

pointed an assistant pastor of a parish in the " tough " sec- 
tion of a large city. He was a frequent visitor at houses of 
ill-repute. About twelve years ago he was made pastor of 
his present parish. His career there has been one of drunk- 
enness and debauchery. He visits houses of vice, and takes 
lewd women back to his parochial home. From November, 
1889, to November, 1890, he had illicit relations with Miss 
— , Mrs. — and Miss — . The last two were supposed to 
sleep, on their visits to the presbytery, in a room adjoining his, 
but in the morning only one bed showed signs of having been 
occupied, and it was the pastor's and clearly showed that it 
had held two. The first woman was his parishioner and was 
a virtuous girl until he met and ruined her. Frequently rub- 
ber articles were found in his presbytery whose use is familiar 
to debauchees. He has been afflicted with a loathsome dis- 
ease and has had medical treatment for it. Rubber articles 
marked, ' For prevention of disease only ' : were taken out 
of a garment that he had worn on the preceding Sunday while 
saying Mass. Miss — was pulled out of his bed at the mid- 
night hour by two reputable Catholic women. 

At one time his Archbishop gave him $500.00 to pay for 
church improvements. He spent the money in debauchery, 
and did not get back to his parish until after the early Sunday 
Mass, which was said by a Franciscan monk. He was ac- 
companied home from a vile haunt by a suspended priest of 
a neighboring diocese. He hired a liveryman to drive them 
home. . The carriage bill was $64.00. He was too drunk to 
say Mass when he got home, and the High Mass was said 
by the suspended priest. A special collection was taken up 
for some church purpose, out of which the carriage fare was 
paid. While lying on the floor of the presbytery drunk, he 
soliloquized upon his deception of the people, and dismissed 
the subject with the exclamation: " O, well, if I don't de- 
ceive them somebody else will ! " A Catholic lady called 
thrice upon his Archbishop to complain of this priest, but 
could not see him. Finally the Archbishop's valet told her 



PRINCIPALS. 235 

to go to the Cathedral House and see the Chancellor. She 
saw this official, but he dismissed her abruptly, saying that 
he did not believe anything she said about the rector. 

Rev. No. 23 has the reputation of being an eloquent 
preacher, and his services are in demand by his sinning breth- 
ren for special ecclesiastical functions (such as corner stone 
layings, dedications and jubilees), his Archbishop, who knows 
about his unholy life, often being present. 

When Rev. No. 23 goes to Hot Springs and other sum- 
mer and winter resorts his friends address him, verbally and in 
writing, as " Mr." He goes under the alias of " Mr. Mitchell." 

He has become so depraved that he has low creatures 
serve him in the ways of Sodom. 

If he had his just deserts he would be transferred from 
his parish to the penitentiary. 

He is the principal of a parochial school which has en- 
rolled over two hundred pupils, and he vehemently seconds 
the Catholic clerical demand for State aid for parochial 
schools. 

Rev. No., 24. — An Admirer of " Little Egypt." 

After his ordination he served as an assistant pastor, and 
he was known about town as a sport, a gambler and a roue. 
One of his pastimes was telling smutty stories founded upon 
things which he had learned in the confessional. He and 
other priests caroused. Moonlight nights were used for hay- 
rack parties by these convivial priests, whose companions were 
abandoned women. He was never known to miss a picnic 
day or night. There was no exhibition of beastliness in any 
noted house of depravity, white or black or yellow, which did 
not number him among its most delighted patrons. " Little 
Egypt ' : ' was one of his prime favorites. Her nude dancing 
never failed to fascinate him. His conduct was so unpriestly 
that he finally was written up in the daily press. Within two 
weeks thereafter he was grievously punished by being promoted 
to the cure of souls in his present parish ! Repeatedly he has 



236 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

accompanied his Bishop to assist in the confirmation of the 
children of the faithful Catholic laity ! ! ! 

Being short of funds he mortgaged his church for a 
thousand dollars; and then he invited his Bishop to confirm 
the children of his parish. After the Confirmation he gave 
a banquet in honor of the Bishop, and congenial priests and 
a number of young lady friends attended it. The gathering 
broke up after the departure of the Bishop in a drunken fight 
over the girls. Two parties were formed, and one ejected the 
other. The vanquished party retired and awakened a saloon- 
keeper, one of the pastor's leading parishioners, and insisted 
upon being furnished with a stock of liquor. This was given 
to them, and with it they went to a hotel. They then pro- 
ceeded to drown the recollection of their recent defeat, and 
in the effort made such a rumpus that the quiet of the town 
was disturbed, and the city marshal threatened to put them 
all under arrest if they did not desist. While debating the 
matter the imbibed liquor came to the relief of the officer of 
the law, the offenders subsiding into a drunken sleep. 

Rev. No. 24 makes it a Christian virtue to avoid the pay- 
ment of bills. Indeed, he is a bankrupt financially and morally. 

Because of his artistic singing, he is in great demand as 
celebrant of Requiem High Masses, and as chanter of the 
" Veni Creator Spiritus" at spiritual retreats, synods, etc., 
this hymn being a prayer for the descent of the Holy Ghost 
upon the gathering. He is an accomplished singer of " coon ' 
and " levee " songs, and is unequalled as a cake walker. 

As soon as his parish has "its parochial school erected, he, 
by the law of the Church, will be its principal, and the par- 
ishioners can have none other. 

Rev. No. 25. — A Ground Hog. 

He is rector of an immense parish. He first studied law, 
but seeing more money in the priesthood he abandoned the 
law for the Lord. He went to Rome and studied there. Then 
he came home, and the prestige of his foreign schooling placed. 



PRINCIPALS. 237 

him at once in an important ecclesiastical office. Then he was, 
through a " pull," appointed rector of his present parish. He 
is grossly intemperate. He was for some months in a Catholic 
hospital at the time of his appointment on account of inebriety. 
He is continually absent from his parish, being at Hot Springs 
and other resorts. He is never home except when he wants 
money. About the only religious duty he ever performs is to 
announce special collections. He never baptizes ; he never 
hears confessions ; and he never answers sick calls. His chief 
ecclesiastical service is to beg for more money on Christmas, 
Easter and All Souls' Day. Some of his parishioners refer 
to him as " the ground-hog " because of his rare appearances 
and sudden departures. He is short on religion and long on 
graft. 

He has 1200 pupils in his parochial school. He has all 
sorts of gambling devices at his church fairs, and raffles 
whiskey at them. -From the altar and pulpit of his church 
the public schools are called " godless." 

Rev. No. 26. — A Monstrosity. 

He is the pastor of a very large parish, and has been its 
rector for thirty years. After his ordination he was appointed 
an assistant to Father Z. Father Z. held a big church fair, 
got dead drunk during it, and an assistant ran away with the 
proceeds. Rev. No. 26, being regarded as a shrewd man to 
hush up the scandal, was selected to take the place of the fugi- 
tive assistant. When he got on the ground he saw that the 
parish by proper handling would have a great future, the par- 
ishioners being a generous, industrious and thrifty people. 
But he felt that he must get Father Z. out of the way. He 
procured a two-gallon jug of whiskey and gave it to Father 
Z., who was lying in bed partially intoxicated and begging for 
liquor, and Father Z. got beastly drunk. Rev. No. 26 then 
hurried to his Bishop, and /complained that it was impossible 
to do any work for God with the Rector continually drunk. 
The Bishop immediately sent his Chancellor to the presbytery 



238 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

to investigate, with orders to remove Father Z. to the hospital 
if the complaint was found correct. Father Z. was taken 
away forthwith. At this time the fugitive assistant was ar- 
rested, and arraigned before the Criminal Court. Rev. No. 
26 was a necessary witness to produce and testify to the books 
of the parish ; and he went to his Bishop and said : " In what 
capacity shall I testify? If I testify as an assistant my evi- 
dence will have little weight." The Bishop replied: "Testify 
as pastor of the church." " But," rejoined Rev. No. 26, " if 
I am asked to produce my letter of appointment as pastor, what 
shall I do?" The Bishop said: "I will fix that now," and 
he forthwith wrote a letter appointing Rev. No. 26 pastor of 
the church. When Father Z. got sober he found his parish 
gone, and he drifted around from place to place among his 
friends and finally died. But he is to-day the nemesis of Rev. 
No. 26, who, when he has the delirium tremens, sees Father 
Z., and it is heart-rending to hear him cry : " O, let me alone ! 
let me alone ! for God's sake, let me alone ! let me alone ! ' 

Rev. No. 26 and his relatives have amassed a fortune of 
nearly a million dollars out of this church. 

He has demoralized the people of his parish through his 
scandalous conduct. Numerous complaints have been made 
against him by parishioners and assistant priests but to no 
avail. The complaining assistants were usually punished; the 
parishioners were always ignored. 

On especially sacred occasions, such as the days of the Na- 
tivity, Crucifixion and Resurrection of our Lord, he gets ex- 
cessively drunk, alleging that his drunkenness is an incon- 
testable proof of the genuineness and depth of his faith. The 
way he puts the matter is this : " A man with my faith would 
drop dead on the day of the Nativity of our Lord, when he 
thinks of the divine Savior being born in a barn, if he did not 
drown his amazement ! ' "A man with my faith on the day 
of the Crucifixion of our Savior, thinking over His sufferings 
and death, would go crazy if he kept sober ! ' " On Easter 



PRINCIPALS. 239 

a man with my faith would be paralyzed with holy joy, reflect- 
ing upon that open tomb and the risen Christ, if he did not 
have whiskey to calm his emotions ! " " Only men of weak 
faith can keep sober on the day of the Ascension of our Lord ; 
men of strong faith must get drunk to keep their hearts from 
being broken by lonesomeness ! " The Feast Days of the 
Blessed Virgin are times of peculiar trial to him ; and only 
by copious draughts of whiskey is he able to stand the strain 
of their touching memories, 

He frequently officiates at Mass without his pants, trust- 
ing to his cassock to hide his limbs, and he often wanders 
around the streets in some of the sacred vestments. He made 
two attempts on Christmas morning, 1902, to say Mass in his 
night shirt before the great congregations. He made a third 
appearance in the sanctuary before fully two thousand people, 
clad in his night shirt, with a short cape over his shoulders, 
and he stood in the sanctuary bowing and smiling foolishly at 
the worshipers. The two priests who were engaged in giving 
Holy Communion ordered an altar boy to lead him away. 

Just after the d-eath of the noted American agnostic, Rob- 
ert G. Ingersoll, he said : " Gentlemen, Ingersoll is dead. It 
is too bad. He was an honest man. I wish I had the strength 
and ability to take his place in the world ; if I had I would do 
so gladly. Gentlemen, we are fooling the people, but he did 
not." He was then asked by one of the priests, " Father, do 
you mean to say that there is no God? ' He replied, " Why, 
certainly I do." His questioner then reviewed the usual Cath- 
olic arguments for the existence of a God, but he sneered and 
said : " If there be what you say, a God, I now challenge Him 
to strike me dead: that is my answer to you, young man." He 
held his watch and gave God five minutes, and on the failure 
of the Almighty to kill him claimed that he had won the argu- 
ment. 

This man's life has been an open book to bishops, priests 
and people. The blasphemous wretch is to-day the spiritual 
shepherd of at least fifteen thousand souls. What has been 



24O THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

and what is his " pull " ? He has become so besotted that he 
throws money out of his windows to the parochial school chil- 
dren to get them to bring him whiskey. 

He keeps his parish heavily in debt. He once said to one 
of his assistants : " If you ever get a parish, don't get your 
church out of debt ; keep it in debt, and then you can holler for 
money as often as you please ; if anybody is fool enough to pay 
off the debt, start a new debt. Have a collection every Sun- 
day, at least every other Sunday; never allow three Sundays 
to pass without a collection ; if you do, the people will get out 
of the knack of giving. I've got a beautiful parish, and I 
prefer it to a diocese. I will tell you why my parish is beauti- 
ful: I've the finest lot of cattle in the country to deal with, 
and they never run dry. Why, the more I kick them and the 
more I cuff them, the more I blackguard them and the oftener 
I get drunk, the better they pony up." 

For over seven years whenever he has addressed his peo- 
ple during church services he has done so seated in a chair 
inside the sanctuary rail. He gives this as his reason : " Why 
should I tire myself by standing? Only an inferior being 
would stand to talk to such a lot of cattle." The poor people 
believe that the infirmities of his flesh compel him to occupy 
a chair. Virtually the only Mass he says is at some funeral 
where there is for him a fee. 

Generation after generation of his relatives have drawn 
their support from the duped people of his parish. His house- 
keeper is his sister, and she is also his general manager and 
cashier ; his brother is his sexton, and so on. His sister has 
large real estate holdings. She keeps her money deposited in 
different banks so that no one can tell the amount of her de- 
posits. 

He is an ardent promoter of church fairs, and makes his 
parochial school children sell the tickets. At them he has slot 
machines, wheels of fortune and other gambling devices; also 
fortune tellers, and a saloon which he runs without a license. 
His parochial school is closed during two afternoons to give 



PRINCIPALS. 24I 

the children an opportunity to gamble. He holds his fairs, 
with their varied attractions, saloon, etc., in his church. 

He is now about 55 years of age ; and if he rounds out in 
his present parish the proverbial threescore and ten years, 
there remain for himself and his relatives fifteen years more 
of graft, and for the good people of his parish fifteen years 
more of priestly sottishness, simony and sacrilege. 

He has a parochial school in which are enrolled over a 
thousand pupils, who are taught by fifteen sisters. 

Rev. No. 27. A Preference for Black. 

He was caught by officers in citizen's clothes in a city alley, 
at midnight, while having lascivious relations with a negress. 
As the officers came toward them they separated, he going to- 
ward the west and she toward the east. One officer captured 
her and held her. The other officer caught the priest, who 
had a handkerchief around his neck to conceal his Roman 
collar. The officer asked the priest to come with him to where 
his brother officer was holding the negress, saying: " That ne- 
gro wench may have robbed you, and now is the time to get 
your money if she has ; you better come back and see." The 
priest swore at the officer and said : " Who are you ? " "I 
am a police officer," was the reply. " Show me your star," 
commanded the priest. The officer did so. " I doubt that 
you are an officer; I will go only with a uniformed officer," 
said Rev. No. 2J. The detective whistled, and a uniformed 
officer immediately appeared. The priest refused then to go 
at all, still swearing. The officers grabbed the priest's arms, 
twisted them backwards and forced him to go to where the 
negress was being held. A second uniformed officer appeared 
and asked : " Isn't he a priest ? " One of the detectives replied : 
1 I think so." When they got the priest to where the negress 
was being held the detective in charge of her said : " My God ! 
you hold this one, and let me hold him." This exchange was 
made, and the detective took the priest aside and said : " My 
God ! Father, what has come over you ? what is the matter 



242 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

with you ? " The priest replied : " What in h — do you mean ? 

Do you take me for a d priest ? " Said the detective : 

" Father, I am sorry to take you for what you really are not 
but what the people suppose you to be." The priest then 
swore and said he had sufficient influence to get them all re- 
moved and he would do business with them and get their stars 
taken away from them on the following day. Said the detec- 
tive : " If you don't go home quietly, Father, I will tell them 
who and what you are. My God ! Father, I live in your par- 
ish, I am sorry to say." Then the priest said : " For the honor 
of God let me go." The officer said : " You had better go and 
go quickly; take the one-thirty car," and he released him and 
the priest hurried away. The negress was taken in a patrol 
wagon to a station where she was fined in the morning for her 
misconduct of the night before with the priest. The priest 
went home, and at 10 o'clock that morning celebrated Requiem 
High Mass over the remains of a parishioner, and he discoursed 
eloquently upon the necessity of living a pure and holy life, 
much to the disgust of the wife of one of the detectives who 
had been informed of the celebrant's midnight love affair with 
the colored lady. A few nights after the arrest of the negress 
the officers met her on the streets while she was pursuing her 
avocation, and talked with her about her relations with the 
priest. They wanted to find out if she knew who and what 
he really was. They said to her : " That man's wife will tear 
the wool off your head if she finds out about your doings with 
her husband." Said she : " Why, he's got no wife ; he's a Cath- 
olic priest!" "What?" said the officers, " what do you 
mean ? " Said she : " Why, he's my bo' ; I had a bo' of culur, 
but I fired him las' September an' ever since that priest has 
bin my bo'; he calls himself Jack McCarthy, but I know that 
isn't his right name ; I could find his right name if I wanted to ; 
he's a priest sure enuf, and he spends one night every week 
with me; why, I luv him, he's a cracker-jack." 

• Rev. No. 28, plus scores and scores. Devotees of Bac- 
chus, Venus, Graft and Gambling. 




A DEVOTED (?) PAROCHIAL SCHOOL PRINCIPAL. 



244 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

The man in the foregoing is a prominent Catholic priest. 

He is the spiritual adviser of a large female academy, to which 

Protestant girls are sent. The Propaganda has a copy of this 

picture. 

" The Gates of Hell." 

The priests to whom I have referred by number are stren- 
uous objectors to lay trustees, and vociferous shouters against 
the " godless " public school. 

It is a marvel that the lightnings of the wrath of God 
do not consume grafting, lecherous, drunken and infidel priests. 

People of America, what think you of such men being 
the principals and assistant principals of schools which are 
training American youth? 

Our Blessed Savior said of His Church: "The gates of 
hell shall not prevail against it." Surely His words find a 
striking illustration in the faithfulness of so many of the Cath- 
olic laity to Holy Mother Church despite the wolves in sheep's 
clothing who minister in holy things at Her sacred altars. 

May Almighty God soon deliver the patient, honest and 
loyal laity from the ministrations of corrupt priests. 

The parochial school is a curse to the Church and a men- 
ace to the Nation by reason of the pedagogic deficiencies and 
moral delinquencies of its principals and assistant principals. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL TEACHERS. 



The parochial school is fatally defective in its teaching 
staff. This declaration will be seen to have ample founda- 
tion by a perusal of the facts, as I shall conservatively state 
them, regarding the procuring, the ability, the training and 
the environment of the parochial school teachers. 

Parochial school teachers, by the law or custom of the 
Church, are members of. some Religious Order, the female 
teachers belonging to sisterhoods and the male teachers to 
brotherhoods. Over ninety-five per cent of the teaching in the 
parochial schools is done by nuns. 

Let us see how the parochial school teachers are secured. 
The officials of the Religious Orders — nuns and monks — are 
constantly on the alert to discover subjects. The nuns urge 
upon girls the calm, the dignity, the blissfulness and the honor 
of a life wholly devoted to God. These girls are most gener- 
ally those whose parents have been unable to give them edu- 
cational advantages, and they and their relatives feel flattered 
and honored by such solicitation. They have, as a rule, but 
a smattering of the common branches as taught in the paro- 
chial school. The girls are also told how angelic they will 
look in the dress of a nun, and what a pretty photograph they 
will take in that sacred garb, and how highly esteemed they and 
their families will be by the people at large. 

The sisters in the parochial schools and academies coax 
and urge their pupils to become nuns. The priests cooperate 
with these recruiting sisters, and in and outside of the con- 



246 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

fessional they flatter and coax girls in the same way, and as- 
sure them, as their spiritual advisers, that they have a vocation. 

Many girls become postulants at an early age. As a rule 
the majority of the nuns enter convents while under legal 
age. 

If a girl consents to become a sister she immediately en- 
ters a convent as a postulant, and receives the appropriate 
garb. A few months later she is received as a member of the 
Order, becomes a novice and receives a new name in religion. 
She remains a novice from six to twelve months, when she 
becomes a professed nun — that is, she makes her solemn vows 
of poverty, chastity and obedience. The whole procedure, 
from her entrance into the convent as a postulant till she 
makes her solemn vows, requires usually about two years. 

American convents are often recruited abroad. Nuns 
are sent to foreign countries to procure subjects. In 1903 a 
prominent Irish-American politician gave a letter to a re- 
cruiting nun in which he extolled her sisterhood, and de- 
scribed the beauty of the life of its members, and portrayed 
the great need of additional members to carry on the work of 
converting America; and he particularly advised the young 
women of his native section to become postulants. The letter 
brought forth much fruit. 

This foreign recruiting is greatly helped by the rigid re- 
quirements to which postulants are subjected in certain for- 
eign places. For instance, a young lady cannot become a pos- 
tulant in Ireland unless she has had a first-class education, 
and has an ample dowry, the latter generally being about 
$2,500.00; and her personal character and family history for 
generations must be above reproach. These rigid rules make 
the sisterhoods in Ireland very exclusive; but this very ex- 
clusiveness produces a fertile field for the American recruit- 
ing nuns, for in America these strict requirements are un- 
known. There is one dowry, thank God, which these im- 



TEACHERS. 247 

ported Irish girls bring with them, and that is virtue. Na- 
tive recruits are generally secured in the parochial schools. 

Recruits, as a rule, are immediately put to teaching. With- 
out training, without pedagogic ability, and without experi- 
ence they are placed over the Catholic children to impart to 
them secular knowledge and religious instruction. 

Postulants, dressed in the garb of professed nuns, are fre- 
quently sent the next day after entering the convent to teach 
classes in parochial schools. A girl, seventeen years of age, 
a pupil in a prominent Catholic academy in America, became 
a postulant, and next day she was put over a class of about 
eighty children in a parochial school; and a few years later 
she was put in charge of the eighth grade in a parochial school. 
She had been a stupid scholar, and when she became a postu- 
lant she was only in the fifth grade. She could not have hon- 
estly passed a public school teachers' examination anywhere 
in America; yet she was put to teaching in a parochial school. 

But if these deficiencies did not exist there would still 
be the grave danger that the secular instruction would fail 
to have its relative importance recognized. A teacher is most 
likely to see everything through the glass of the dominant 
motive. If the dominant motive is religious, then it follows 
naturally that religion will receive the preponderant emphasis. 
The Catechism might appear to outrank greatly all other 
studies. The Catechism has its place, but may not too much 
Catechism be as harmful to youth as too little? 

Again, parochial school teachers are in great danger of 
mental stagnation and retrogression. What incentive have 
they to keep abreast of the times ? They are free from the 
criticism of the pupils' parents; they are not subjected to ex- 
aminations; they are not held to any established secular ped- 
agogic standards ; and they are answerable to ecclesiastics who 
are very uncertain intellectual, moral and spiritual quantities. 

Parochial school teachers receive individually no pay for 
their services; hence their toil is reduced to an unrequited 



248 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

drudgery, except the compensation which may be found in 
religious sentiments. If this religious reward is absent, then 
there is an utter lack of incentive to greater achievement in 
their teaching work ; and, if this recompense is experienced, 
by its very nature the only incentive it furnishes is to become 
a better religious teacher, and that in the sense of achieving 
greater success in imparting catechetical instruction. 

The secular instruction imparted to the children in paro- 
chial schools is deplorably weak. Nevertheless ecclesiastics 
laud to the skies these incapable teachers, and even assert that 
they are endowed with supernatural grace for their teaching 
work. A prominent Archbishop said in a sermon which he 
delivered June 26, 1904: 

The parochial schools surpass all others. How could it be 
otherwise? Its teachers — instruments of God's Church — are 
inspired by the Holy Ghost. 

Parochial school teachers are grossly incompetent. I am 
convinced that but a very few of them could pass the pre- 
scribed examinations for public school teachers. 

I know of one parochial school in America out of which 
thirty-three sisters have been turned by the rector during the 
past four years, on the ground of tbeir " marked incompetency." 
The last eleven were turned out at the very time Archbishop 
Quigley was attacking the public school in 1903. These nuns 
belonged to one of the most prominent sisterhoods in their 
Archdiocese. They were sent to other parochial schools. 

The religious instruction comprises a smattering of the 
Catechism, a rehearsal of astounding ancient and modern 
miracles, dissertations upon the Christlikeness of the paro- 
chial school officers, and some other odds and ends. 

Parochial school teachers tell the parochial school chil- 
dren continually that the anger of God will immediately visit 
any one who makes bold to comment unfavorably upon a 
cardinal, a bishop, a priest, a monk or a nun. This instruction 



TEACHERS. 249 

is imparted to close the mouths of those pupils who keep open 
their ears and eyes. 

The. nuns are completely under the thumb of the pastors. 
They dare not oppose their reprehensible schemes. Their 
activity in church fairs shows their subserviency to the wishes 
of the. parochial school principal. 

At church fairs the parochial school teachers attend the 
" afternoons ' for the children, and they often instruct the 
children how to play the various gambling devices, assist them 
in placing their bets, and help the little children put their 
money into the slot-machines. These nuns frequently manage 
two booths, one for boys and the other for girls so as 
to create a rivalry between them. Articles for the fair 
are solicited by the nuns and the children ; chance-books are 
issued on each article, and each parochial school pupil has 
to take a chance-book. The children sell these chances, and 
the child who sells the most in each grade gets a small prize. 
The teachers' booths make the most money. 

The parochial school principal can, if he chooses, make 
life miserable for the parochial school teachers. He can dis- 
charge them at will. He can overwhelm them with petty an- 
noyances. He is their spiritual confessor, and therefore has 
them completely in his power. Bold, indeed, would be that par- 
ochial school teacher who would enter any protest against the 
unclerical conduct of her principal. But if she were courage- 
ous enough to complain, her complaint would not bring re- 
dress. Her course would be interpreted as an attack on 
authority; and the parochial school superintendent, instead of 
rebuking the corrupt principal, would have the complaining, 
teacher punished. Nuns have been exiled for such conduct. 

All the nuns in a convent must be in subjection to their 
sister superioress. Her will is law. Her will absolutely 
dominates them. The nuns dare not express any will of their 
own. Such arbitrary power in the hands of one woman, who 
may be unchristian at heart, is fraught with the gravest peril 



25O THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. * 

to any of the nuns who do not cater to her and enjoy her favor. 
Think you that under such conditions a sister will oppose her 
superioress or refuse to acquiesce in her every wish? 

Let no one imagine that the lives of the nuns are full 
of unalloyed happiness. If the truth were known the Cath- 
olic people would be astounded by the number of sisters who 
carry crushed and bleeding hearts. Not infrequently nuns 
summon up courage enough to leave the sisterhood, despite 
all suggestions of shame and threats of eternal damnation. 

Parochial school teachers live in too narrow a groove 
and breathe too confined an atmosphere to warrant Catholic 
parents in feeling satisfied with having their children under 
them, even if there were no question as to their qualifications 
to teach. Catholic children should have natures over them 
which are strong, broad, sympathetic and expanding. 

As far as the monks are concerned many of them are 
devotees of Bacchus and Venus. 

I assert again that the parochial school is fatally weak 
in its teachers because of their lack of pedagogic talent, train- 
ing, incentive and independence. 



CHAPTER VII. 



GRAFT ! GRAFT ! ! GRAFT ! ! ! 



I have already in general terms charged the parochial 
school officials with being grafters. In this chapter I will 
give some forms of clerical grafting. I do not pretend to de- 
scribe all of the nefarious methods by which ecclesiastics filch 
money out of the pockets of the faithful and generous Catholic 
people, who blindly imagine that their gifts of money are en- 
tirely devoted to holy purposes, and have no suspicion that 
their contributions go to the personal enrichment of priests 
and prelates. It is not surprising, however, that they should 
be so easily deceived, for what could be more natural than for 
them to believe without a question the statements of the shep- 
herds of their souls ? Taught from infancy to regard priests 
and prelates as holy beings, they must not be unduly 
blamed for shutting their eyes to all signs of clerical hypocrisy, 
nor must they be too harshly censured for coming with the 
greatest reluctance to a realization of the frauds which are 
daily practiced upon them in the name of religion by the am- 
bassadors of Jesus Christ. 

My dear Catholic readers, I beg you to remember that 
a grafting priest turns everything he possibly can into money. 
Nothing is too sacred to deter him. He grafts on the living 
and he grafts on the dead. He traffics in the holy things of 
religion, and he does no service without making money out 
of it if he possibly can. When he asks you for money for 
the cause of God it is his own pocket that is uppermost in his 
thought. He is a vampire that sucks the very life blood of 
the poor. He is worse than an infidel because he destroys 



252 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

while professing to be a friend. He is a wolf in sheep's cloth- 
ing who gains access to the hearts of the people by the garb of 
godliness which disarms their suspicion. If you have a graft- 
er for your pastor remember that you have a rector who has 
not at heart the good of your souls ; his sole aim is to get as 
much money out of you as he can. 

I seek no quarrel with the Church over the feasts and 
fasts and ceremonies which She in Her wisdom has enjoined 
upon the faithful, and I do not begrudge an honest priest a 
decent livelihood. What I oppose is the prostitution of sacred 
things by clerical grafters to the service of mammon, and the 
introduction by them of various religious side-shows for the 
purpose of making graft. 

An old Irish- American gentleman said to me one day: 
" My God ! Father Crowley, the priests are nothing but graft- 
ers; it is nothing but money, money, money, the whole time; 
they are bleeding the people of money day and night ; they 
are hotter after graft than the Irish landlords are after their 
rack-rents ; I left Ireland to escape the clutches of the grasp- 
ing, rack-renting landlords, but I find I jumped from the fry- 
ing pan into the fire, as the clergy here are worse than the 
landlords there ; I am so sick and tired of these reverend graft- 
ers that I have lost all confidence in them, and I intend from 
now on to do business straight with the Almighty and boycott 
the clerical middlemen." 

I reserve for a later chapter a full discussion of the dis- 
astrous results to the Church of clerical grafting, hypocrisy 
and immorality. 

Holy Orders Graft. 

The Church educates the young men who are to enter 
Her priesthood in this country, and the Catholic people once 
a year, in every church in America, are taxed for their educa- 
tion, the offering being called " The Seminary Collection." 
The explanation given for this tax is that the parents of the 



GRAFT. 253 

young men are too poor to pay for their care and tuition. 
Each candidate has to be adopted by a bishop or an archbishop, 
and in order to secure adoption he has to obtain the recom- 
mendation of his parish rector. For this recommendation it is 
not unusual for the parish rector to get an annual graft until 
the candidate is ordained. The pastor is likely to object on 
some ground, real or imaginary, to his ordination, if the graft 
is not forthcoming. 

This Annual Seminary Collection is vehemently urged 
upon the people " to sustain the Church in her efforts to Chris- 
tianize infidel America." The pastor keeps at least fifty per 
cent, of the Seminary Collection for his graft. 

When a priest is ordained he aims to say his first public 
Mass in his native parish. He sends out a card of ordination 
with an elaborate card of invitation to his first Mass. The 
Mass is announced from the pulpit and in the religious and 
secular press weeks ahead. The relatives and friends of the 
celebrant and other worshipers throng the church. Usually 
the Mass is a Solemn High. A sermon is preached by the 
pastor or some other ecclesiastic on the dignity, the beauty 
and the power of the priesthood. A special collection is taken 
up for the young celebrant but he gets just what the rector 
chooses to give him. At one of these services there was at 
least five hundred dollars received, but the pastor gave the 
young celebrant only twenty-five dollars, although the young 
priest had paid fifty dollars for the special music. 

Promotion Graft. 

This graft is made by priests when they are promoted 
from the place of assistant pastor to a rectorship, and when 
pastors are transferred from one pastorate to another. When 
these events take place the Catholic people are duly advised, 
and influences are set to work to lead them to give the promoted 
priest or transferred pastor a monetary testimonial. Circulars 
are gotten up by the priest and his clerical friends, setting forth 



254 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

the propriety of a testimonial purse, and public meetings are 
called to carry the suggestion into effect. 

Large sums of money are collected in this way. Those 
who do not contribute are likely to be blacklisted by the priests 
of the parish and to have opprobrium heaped upon them. This 
might cause a delinquent serious embarrassment at a time when 
spiritual consolation is wanted by himself or some member 
of his family. 

Vacation Graft. 

Catholic pastors work so hard for the glory of God that 
they must have vacations in which to recuperate from the wear 
and tear of their arduous labors for the salvation of souls. 
They manipulate their vacation necessities in such a way that 
the faithful are asked to contribute either to a purse to enable 
them to get away or to a purse after they return to recoup them 
for their vacation expenses. The sodalities and societies make 
large contributions. 

The subject is so adroitly presented to the people that 
their giving becomes a sign of their faith. 

Vacation graft is by no means to be despised. It runs 
in the aggregate into hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. 

Anniversary Graft. 

Birthday: Parochial school children are harassed annual- 
ly for money for a birthday present for the pastor. No child 
can be comfortable who fails to contribute. A tax is levied 
upon each child, and the money comes out of the pockets of 
the hard-working parents. It is simply an annual graft. 
Adult Catholics may and do contribute directly. Apparently 
the pastor has nothing to do with the celebration of his birth- 
day, but in reality he is the prime mover. 

Ordination: The anniversary of the ordination of a pastor 
cannot be allowed to go unremembered, and so a purse has to 
be forthcoming to duly commemorate the event. The paroch- 
ial school children are taxed and the societies and sodalities 



GRAFT. 255 

are virtually forced to contribute. The priest himself and not 
the people sets the machinery in motion for the collection of 
ordination graft. 

Silver Jubilee: When a priest reaches the twenty-fifth 
anniversary of his ordination a great occasion is made of it. 
It is called his silver jubilee. Great efforts are put forth to 
fittingly commemorate this anniversary. They crystallize in a 
purse for His Reverence, or His Lordship, or His Grace, or 
His Eminence, as his title may be. Everybody is asked to con- 
tribute to this purse, from the highest ecclesiastic and civil of- 
ficial down to the humblest toiler on the streets ; non-Catholics 
are solicited for funds as well as Catholics. Laudatory ad- 
dresses are presented and sumptuous banquets are served. Sil- 
ver jubilee receipts as a rule are exceedingly comforting in 
size. 

Silver jubilees are supposed to be the result of the spon- 
taneous action of the Catholic people, but those who really 
understand about their origin know that the priest whose an- 
niversary is celebrated is the one who starts and works up the 

enthusiasm. 

Baptismal Graft. 

At the baptism of a child of a poor couple by a prominent 
pastor and parochial school principal, its father paid 
the priest two dollars, and each of the sponsors gave a dollar. 
The priest looked contemptuously at the " two dollars ' ' and 
scornfully asked : " Is that all I am to get from you, Pat ? " 
"'That's all I have, Father ! " " Well, now, see here Pat, if 
you are not ready to pay at least five dollars for a job like 
this, you must stop making children ! ' The poor man had 
borrowed the two dollars ! 

On the Sunday following baptisms some pastors announce 
or have announced from the pulpit, just before the sermon, 
the amounts given at such baptisms by the father and each of 
the sponsors. This practice of giving names and amounts is 
pursued to shame into larger giving any prospective fathers 



2$6 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

and sponsors, and also to prevent the assistant pastors " knock- 
ing down " baptismal offerings. 

The baptizing of infants is a profitable industry with the 
Catholic clergy. Baptism is the first Sacrament, but priests 
and prelates turn it into an institution for graft. There is 
probably not one baptism in ten thousand in the Catholic 
Church in America which does not bring to the pastor a fee 
ranging from at least two to fifty or more dollars. As a rule 
the infants are baptized on Sunday afternoon, and the priest, 
to spare himself labor, baptizes " in a bunch " all the infants 
presented, and frequently he gets confused, forgets and makes 
mistakes. He never forgets the baptismal fee, however. There 
are thousands upon thousands of infants baptized in the Cath- 
olic Church in this country every year. Think of the graft 
which is made out of this holy Sacrament! 

Grafting priests lead some Catholic parents to believe that 
if the first fourteen verses of the first chapter of St. John's 
Gospel are read after the Sacrament of Baptism, the baptized 
infant will never be troubled by fairies or ghosts. For the 
reading of these few verses of Scripture the grafting priest 
expects and gets an additional offering. 

Penance Graft. 

Grafting priests do not scruple to use the confessional for 
the making of mercenary gain. For example, they will com- 
pel people who have gone to fortune tellers outside of church 
fairs to put an amount into the poor box equal to the fee paid 
to the fortune teller. The pastor is the custodian of the poor 
box and has sole access to and entire control of its contents. 

As assistant pastors do not have access to the poor box 
they generally pursue the plan of ordering as a part of the 
penance the having of one or more Masses said, and then and 
there they receive the offering for the Mass or the penitent 
brings it to them later. 

I know a poor woman who paid a fee to a Gypsy fortune 
teller, out of charity, and later went to confession, and the 



GRAFT. 257 

priest compelled her to pay him five dollars as a fine for hav- 
ing listened to the fortune teller. 

First Communion Graft. 

In America Catholic children receive their first Holy 
Communion at about the age of ten or twelve years. For this 
ceremony their clothing is prescribed. Certain stores are urged 
upon the children. The nuns sell the children certain articles 
such as ribbons and sashes, wreaths and veils. The children 
also buy rosary beads, scapulars, prayer books, medals and 
candles. For the candles they pay twenty-five cents for two 
or fifteen cents for one, and they are supposed to carry them 
lighted, but as a matter of fact they do not. After the cere- 
mony the candles are taken away from them and either used 
on the altar or sold to the members of the next Confirmation 
class. 

There is a first Holy Communion certificate which is 
filled out for the child and signed by the pastor, for which 
there is a prescribed fee. Often the children of a first Holy 
Communion class are requested or commanded by the nuns 
to contribute a certain amount to make up a purse for their 
poor pastor in honor of their first Holy Communion. 

Confirmation Graft. 

Confirmation is the next Sacrament following the first 
Holy Communion, and may come a year later. For it the same 
furnishings are virtually prescribed as for the first Holy Com- 
munion, and practically the same graft is made. 

The Sacrament of Confirmation can be conferred by no 
Church dignitary less exalted than a Bishop. As a rule the 
children confirmed are taxed so much each to make up a purse 
for the dignitary who confirms them, and to pay for the sump- 
tuous banquet which is given in his honor. For such ban- 
quets professional caterers are generally engaged, and the 



258 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

plates range in price from five to ten dollars, the price includ- 
ing wines but rarely the cigars. 

There is a Confirmation Certificate filled out for each child 
and signed by the pastor, for which there is a prescribed fee. 

Matrimonial Graft. 

When a Catholic gentleman wishes to get married he goes 
to the pastor and makes arrangements for the ceremony. Or- 
dinarily the minimum fee for the service is ten dollars ; in rare 
cases it may be only five dollars. 

If the contracting parties wish to avoid the publishing 
of the bans they have to get what is called a dispensation for 
which the pastor is paid at least five dollars. It is issued by 
the Chancellor of the Diocese or Archdiocese, and the pastor 
may pay him or may not. 

If one of the contracting parties is a non-Catholic a dis- 
pensation for the marriage has to be obtained from the Bishop 
or Archbishop, for which cash down has to be paid, the amount 
being at least five dollars. The marriage in this instance, how- 
ever, cannot take place in a Catholic church, and at it, wherever 
it takes place, the officiating priest cannot wear the sacred 
vestments. 

If the wedding is held in a church, the contracting parties 
must pay at least fifteen dollars extra for having the organ 
played if they want that instrument used, and if they have 
singing they must pay still more. If they want the church bells 
rung for a few minutes they must pay a fee of at least twenty- 
five dollars. If there is a floral display with an awning and 
a carpet from the church to the sidewalk, they must pay an 
extra fee. 

Candles are supposed to be lighted at every wedding cere- 
mony when the contracting parties are Catholics. Two can- 
dles are furnished by the pastor. If more candles are wanted 
an extra fee is required. 



GRAFT. 259 

Catholic priests sometimes officiate at the weddings of di- 
vorced people. When they are called upon to marry individ- 
uals who have been married previously but not validly accord- 
ing to the doctrine of the Church, they take advantage of the 
situation to exact large fees. 

A priest showed me five hundred dollars that he had just 
received as a wedding fee for officiating at a marriage though 
the bride had a living husband. This last wedding was held 
in a Catholic church and at it there was celebrated a Solemn 
High Mass. 

The law of the Church provides that Catholics shall be 
married by their own pastor and they cannot be married by 
any one else without getting his consent. But priests and 
prelates deliberately break this law and marry couples without 
the consent of their pastor, and sometimes against his protest, 
and without knowing anything about the antecedents of the 
contracting parties. Why do they thus violate the law of the 
Church? Because they get the fee. 

I call attention to these marriage fees chiefly to prevent 
my readers losing sight of this prolific source of revenue when 
they attempt to calculate the income of Catholic pastors. 

Matrimony is one of the seven Sacraments of the Cath- 
olic Church. I leave it to the calm judgment of my readers to 
say whether the various fees in connection with a wedding cere- 
mony which are exacted by the representatives of Jesus Christ 
do not show a prostitution of a holy Sacrament to clerical 
gain. 

I am unable to say how large the fees are of Bishops and 
Archbishops, — perhaps they officiate for nothing! The wed- 
ding fees of Cardinals are evidently not to be despised. 

First and second cousins are allowed by the Church to 
marry on securing a dispensation for which a fee is exacted, 
its size depending upon the wealth of the contracting parties. 

The law of the Church is that a man may marry his de- 
ceased wife's sister, in spite of any adverse law of the country, 



26o THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

provided he secures a dispensation, and of course this costs a 
fee. 

Extreme Unction Graft. 

Even the administration of the Sacrament of Extreme 

Unction is made an occasion for grafting by clerical grafters. 

I content myself with relating the following incident : One 

of the most prominent pastors in a great Archdiocese 

refused to administer this Sacrament unless he got cash down. 

He was called to the bedside of a poor woman whose husband 

was a Protestant. She had not attended the Catholic Church 

since her marriage — two years. The priest put everybody 

out of her room, and said to her : " You have not been to church 

for two years ; this has kept me out of $28.00 pew rent ; before 

I hear your confession and give you the last Sacraments of 

the Church you must pay me that $28.00." The dying woman 

replied : " My husband has been out of work most of the time ; 

there are two doctors attending me for several weeks, and I 

have not a cent in the house." He then produced a blank 

promissory note, filled it out and asked her to sign it. She 

said : " No, Father, I do not want to go before God with such 

a promise on my soul which may never be fulfilled." Taking 

his hat he answered : " Then die as you are ! ' And he went 

away. 

Last Will and Testament Graft. 

Catholic clerical grafters ply their wicked arts in the last 
sickness of Catholic people who have means. People of pov- 
erty receive scant attention and are sometimes roundly abused 
for calling the priest at an inconvenient time and for not pro- 
viding such essentials as candles, holy water, cotton, salt and 
water. Rich people are fawned upon and obsequiously served, 
while every effort is made to get a personal legacy for the Bish- 
op or Archbishop so that the support of that dignitary will be 
had in case there should be a contest over the will, to say noth- 
ing of the desire to curry favor with His Lordship or His 
Grace. 



GRAFT. 26l 

Catholic priests and prelates are not strangers to probate 
courts in the various States of the American Republic. Hun- 
dreds of thousands of dollars get into clerical hands through 
last will and testament graft. 

Funeral Graft. 

The law of the Church is that if a Catholic fails to make 
his Easter duty he thereby excommunicates himself, and if he 
then dies without having the ministrations of a priest no re- 
ligious service of any kind can be held over his remains, and 
his body cannot be buried in consecrated ground. Is this law 
observed in America? No, not when the relatives of the de- 
ceased have money. In fact, the breaking of the Church law 
is a prolific source of graft. What will not faithful and devout 
Catholics give to have religious rites over the remains of 
a beloved relative, both for the salvation of the deceased and 
to save the family from the scandal of having a relative buried 
like a dog? The bodies of persons who have failed to make 
their Easter duty and who have then died without the last 
sacraments are carried into the Church, the altars are heavily 
draped, a great number of candles are burning, Solemn High 
Mass is sung, fulsome eulogies are pronounced, and the bodies 
are laid away in consecrated ground, This is done throughout 
America every day of the week. High church dignitaries often 
officiate. 

Most awful is the effect of funeral graft. The children 
of the deceased, the relatives, the friends and the neighbors 
understand the horrid hypocrisy and remark, " Why should we 
lead a good life and go to Mass? If there is money left when 
we die we are sure of a good send off." 

Catholics deliberately fail to make their Easter duty and 
neglect all of their other religious obligations. They are taken 
sick, the priest is sent for and the sick receive the last Sacra- 
ments, and thus they are entitled to Christian burial. If the 
relatives have money the deceased receive as marked honors 



262 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

in the funeral rites as are accorded to Catholic people who 
have lived the most exemplary lives. 

The remains of the most abandoned people, such as thieves, 
murderers and prostitutes, who have died in the very act of 
sin, are carried into Catholic churches and given all possible 
honor and interred in consecrated ground. 

According to Catholic teaching the soul of a Catholic who 
failed to make his Easter duty and thereafter abandoned all 
other religious obligations and died without receiving the last 
sacraments, does not go to purgatory but goes immediately 
and directly into hell, and " out of hell there is no redemption." 
According to Catholic doctrine the destiny of that soul is ir- 
revocably fixed, and it must remain in hell for all eternity. 
This teaching applies to any human being who dies with the 
guilt of even one mortal sin on his soul. Notwithstanding 
this positive teaching priests and prelates take money for fu- 
neral services which they know are but "a mockery, a delusion 
and a snare." In addition they get immense graft from the 
relatives and friends for Masses for the liberation of the soul 
when according to Catholic doctrine there is no liberation. 
What explains this inconsistency? Is it a clerical want of 
faith in the doctrine ? Is it graft ? Is it both ? 

One of the most prominent pastors in America makes it 
a point to say all the funeral Masses which are said in his 
church, and at the funerals of individuals whose lives 
have been most vicious and sinful he delivers eulogies, 
in the course of which he expresses his sorrow over the great 
loss to the parish, and he weeps copiously. Then he peers 
up at the rafters and states that he sees the soul of the de- 
parted in heaven, and often he declares that he hears the de- 
ceased singing with the angels and archangels. Later he re- 
minds his hearers of the frailty of all things human, and sug- 
gests that possibly his eye-sight and hearing may be defective, 
and he implores them to make sure of the eternal salvation of 
their loved one by having him say some requiem Masses. Of 



GRAFT. 263 

course he does not say Masses for nothing. He is the shep- 
herd of at least fifteen thousand Catholics. 

Funeral graft is also made out of the funerals of devout 
Catholics. The relatives and friends of the deceased are urged 
to have Masses said for the repose of the soul of their departed 
loved one. Every Mass, said or unsaid (the latter often be- 
ing the case), means so much additional money for the priest. 

I am not criticizing the having of Masses said for the 
happy repose of the soul of the dead, for this is in accordance 
with the teaching of my Church, but I do protest against mer- 
cenary priests urging such Masses solely for the sake of graft. 

A Catholic gentleman had been living in a Cathedral par- 
ish for many years. He moved into another parish, lived there 
some time, and there died. It was his wish that he should be 
buried from the Cathedral parish where he had been brought 
up and where he had many friends. His widow was anxious 
to have his wish carried out. She went to her parish priest 
and wanted to know how much it would cost to permit the fu- 
neral to be held in the Cathedral parish. The pastor told her 
two hundred dollars. She said : *'" Father, we have been good 
parishioners ; we have paid liberally ; we gave fifty dollars for 
each baptism in our family ; I do not think you should hold 
us up in this way." His reply was : ' I have stated our terms, 
and it is up to you." Then she wanted to know how much it 
would cost to permit a priest from another parish, a personal 
friend of her husband, to attend the funeral of the deceased 
in the parish in which he had died and to pronounce a pane- 
gyric over him. He replied : " If you will give me one hun- 
dred dollars I will permit the priest from the other parish to 
preach over him." This hundred dollars would be in addition 
to what this pastor would get anyway for his funeral fee, 
which would be a very large cne on account of the wealth and 
prominence of the deceased. The widow answered : " Very 
well, Father, you shall have it " ; and then she added : " Well, 
Father, from the way things are" done here below it strikes 



264 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

me that we will have to buy heaven, and if that is so then God 
help the poor, for they can never get there." 

Cemetery Graft. 

Who owns the Catholic cemeteries? Who buys the land 
which is dedicated to the deceased children of the Church? 
Who sells the lots and single graves? Is there any profit in 
the various transactions? Who gets it? 

If a parish has a cemetery of its own, which is quite fre- 
quently the case in the country, the pastor handles all the cem- 
etery moneys or revenue. Parishes in great cities do not own 
cemeteries, but the diocese has one or more, the title to them, 
in the absence of cemetery trustees, being in the Bishop. 

In the vicinity of the great American cities there are some 
large Catholic burying grounds. I wonder what they cost 
and what the expenditures have been and are for their main- 
tenance. I wonder what the receipts from the sales of lots 
and single graves have been and are. I wonder if they' are 
conducted at a loss or a profit to the Bishops and Archbishops. 
If there is a profit I wonder to what pious use it is devoted. 
Catholic people, don't you wonder, too? If you do, why don't 
you ask? I have heard ecclesiastics say that the Catholic cem- 
etery business is one of the greatest gold mines in America 

In many sections of the land there is enough ecclesiastical 
grafting in connection with Catholic cemeteries to make the 
dead rise up to protest. 

Purgatorial Graft. 

Many priests deliberately preach during the week pre- 
ceding All Souls' Day (November 2nd) in such a way as to 
work unduly upon the feelings of their hearers. They picture 
the deceased relatives of their hearers as suffering most horrible 
torments in purgatory, and crying out in anguish : " Have pity 
on me! Have pity on me, at least you, my friends," etc., etc. 
Large offerings are thereupon made by the sympathetic rela- 




A PURGATORIAL MEMENTO. 



2.66 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

tives, amounting often to thousands of dollars, and in good 
conscience calling for the saying of many Masses, but the 
Masses actually said are few and far between. 

I know good Catholic people who have become so dis- 
gusted with this duplicity that instead of making money of- 
ferings for the remembrance of their deceased relatives in 
Masses, they go to the cemetery and say prayers over the graves 
of their loved ones. 

On All Saints' Day, November i, 1903, a priest said to 
one of the most enlightened congregations in his city : " I 
blush for the faith of the people of this parish ! They have 
lost the faith ! They do not give us money for Masses for their 
deceased relatives." The fact was that his people had become 
weary of being deceived. 

A few years ago in an eastern diocese of the United States 
a pastor denounced from his pulpit the graft practiced upon 
the Catholic people in the name of religion by mercenary priests, 
and he called particular attention to the awful swindle per- 
petrated upon them in connection with the All Souls' offerings. 
A brother priest, who was a prominent pastor, struck him 
between the eyes with his fist at a public gathering of the 
priests of the diocese, held in the Cathedral church, for having 
enlightened the Catholic people. Seeing that the exposures of 
this brave priest would interfere with their grafting, the priests 
entered into a plot to ruin him, and he was soon after sus- 
pended and deprived of his parish. He is now raising and 
selling chickens for a living. 

Building Graft. 

V 

When a building is erected for any purely diocesan pur- 
pose the Bishop lets all contracts and pays all bills, and his ac- 
counts are never audited. The structure may be for an acad- 
emy, or a seminary, or a university, or an episcopal palace in 
the city or in the country. The Catholic people have nothing 
to say about its necessity, its size, its architecture, its location, 



GRAFT. 267 

or its cost. One Archbishop paid $35,000 for the erection of 
a stable, which was not a duplicate of the one in which our 
Savior was born. The Bishop, if it is a diocese, or the Arch- 
bishop, if it is an archdiocese, settles all details to his own 
satisfaction, and then calls for money, and he asks for what 
he pleases irrespective of the actual cost. If the actual cost 
of a structure is a hundred thousand dollars, there is nothing 
to prevent his asking for two hundred thousand. In fact he 
gets as much more than the actual cost as he can, and this sur- 
plus is simply his individual graft. 

The erection of a purely parochial structure is in the con- 
trol of the parish rector. He lets all contracts, pays all bills, 
and his accounts are never audited in the strict sense of the 
word. He asks the people for money and they give it to him. 
Whatever the surplus may be the pastor keeps, and he makes 
the surplus as large as he can. 

Catholic people always pay far more for any strictly dio- 
cesan or parochial structure than its actual cost. They never 
get through paying for some of these structures, and in fact 
they pay many times the actual cost of them. 

Catholic pastors deliberately keep their parishes in debt 
to give themselves an opportunity to incessantly demand mon- 
ey, and the Catholic people are continually giving to liquidate 
parish debts which are never paid off. What becomes of their 
contributions? They go to swell clerical graft. 

Incendiary Graft. 

I have heard the charge made in Catholic circles that 
churches and other buildings have been deliberately set on fire 
by Catholic clerical grafters so that the erection of a new struc- 
ture would become imperative and afford them an opportunity 
for graft, the burning of a religious edifice tending particularly 
to create sympathy in the breasts of all people regardless of 
creed. 



268 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

I do not mean to insinuate that incendiary graft is gen- 
eral. I insert this item to decrease or put an end to the graft 
of this kind. 

Sanitary Graft. 

The parochial schools, being under the parish rectors, 
may be kept in a sanitary condition, or may not. Care may 
be taken of boilers, etc., or may not. A mercenary priest is 
not likely to spend much for the sanitation of his school build- 
ing and the safety of his pupils. 

There are parochial schools in prosperous parishes whose 
toilet facilities would shame a hog pen. No wonder many 
parochial school children go to untimely graves. 

Municipalities have building ordinances, and a compli- 
ance with them costs money. Every dollar saved is a dollar 
in the pocket of the priest. A mercenary priest is the great- 
est tempter a building inspector can have. In the first place, 
such a priest has no compunctions in carrying his point by 
graft, and in the second place politics are made to enter into 
the question, non-acquiescence in the pastor's wishes by the 
inspector being represented as an affront to the Catholic 
Church, and, consequently, an insult to Catholic voters. 

Corner Stone Graft. 

When the corner stone of a Catholic edifice is laid the 
greatest possible publicity is sought for the ceremony. An- 
nouncements are made from the altars, parades are held, and 
Church dignitaries are secured to officiate. Great crowds as- 
semble and large representations of Catholic societies attend. 
Large collections are taken up during the services, and the 
money goes into the hand of the ecclesiastic in immediate 
charge of the edifice. There is no check upon him. He uses 
for his own purposes what he pleases. Corner stone laying 
furnishes a large amount of graft. 

Many a Catholic edifice in America is founded upon graft, 
and often those who lay the corner stones are lewd in life. 



GRAFT. 269 

Dedication Graft. 

There is a great difference between the consecration and 
the dedication of a Catholic church. A Catholic church is 
not consecrated till it is entirely free from debt. Edifices may 
be dedicated when they are completed, irrespective of any in- 
debtedness. 

Dedications are made the most of by grafting pastors. 
Practically the same features attend them that characterize 
corner stone layings. Large collections are received. The 
pastor takes them and does with them according to his own 
pleasure. 

Consecration Graft. 

This is extremely limited all over the country as it is far 
more profitable to rectors to keep churches in debt than to free 
them from debt, and a Catholic church cannot be consecrated 
till all indebtedness upon it has been paid. As long as there 
is a debt on his church a Catholic rector can cry for money 
to pay it. 

In the United States of America there are but few Cath- 
olic churches free from debt. 

Corner stone layings, dedications and consecrations are 
skilfully used. Catholic societies are compelled to turn out 
in force. Everything is done to secure the attendance of a 
multitude. A parade, attended with bands of music, is held. 
Office holders, candidates for civic offices and aspirants for 
political honors, from the governor of a State down to a con- 
stable, are invited, and the invitation is couched in language 
that compels attendance if the favor of Catholic voters is want- 
ed. They attend and they occupy prominent places. They nev- 
er leave their pocketbooks at home, and often they assist in 
taking up the collection. They are publicly presented to His 
Lordship, or His Grace, or His Eminence, as the case may 
be, so that their obeisance may be seen by the crowd ; and their 
worshipful attitude is very reverential. 



27o the parochial school. 

Mass Graft. 

The worshipers at Sunday Mass comprise two classes, viz : 
pewholders and non-pewholders. The former pay in advance 
the prescribed rates for their sittings, the latter pay cash at 
the door, the charge varying from ten to twenty-five cents, 
depending upon the tone of the parish. The pastor sits at the 
door, or has representatives there, and no non-pewholder over 
sixteen years of age is allowed to enter for divine worship with- 
out first paying cash down. Should he succeed in forcing 
himself in, he is compelled to stand in the rear of the church 
during the service or he is seated in what is known as the 
" paupers' corner." I have known many a hard working poor 
man, who could not afford to pay for each chargeable member 
of his numerous family, to absent himself from church alto- 
gether and keep his family away. 

I was summoned once to attend a dying man. When I 
reached the house he refused the last rites of the church. I 
tried to reason with him and he gave as his explanation for re- 
fusing the last Sacraments that the last time he had attempted 
to enter the church on a Sunday morning he had been refused 
admission because he did not have ten cents; and that he was 
then in poor health, out of work and had a wife and three 
small children. His wife told me that he had not been to the 
church in five years. There are very many men in America 
like this poor man. 

I have known of instances where the pastor, who had 
been watching at the door, went to the pulpit and, while mak- 
ing announcements, cast aspersions upon the people in the 
paupers' corner for daring to enter the church without paying 
the entrance fee. 

There is always a collection taken up during Mass, and to 
induce the people to contribute at least ten cents each they are 
told, " All who will contribute ten cents or upwards to the 
collection during Mass will have a share in the Mass which 
will be said to-morrow," or some other day. 



GRAFT. 271 

The Church Fair Graft. 

In a later chapter I will show the pernicious influence 
of church fairs upon the Catholic children. In this place I 
aim to show the various kinds of graft made at church fairs. 

Who gets the money, often running into thousands of 
dollars, which is made at church fairs? The rectors of the 
parishes where they are held get the proceeds. Is there any 
account rendered to the parish by the rector of the amount re- 
ceived and of the use to which it is put? Never any honest 
account. The rector simply puts it into his pocket and spends 

it as he wills. 

Clerical " Sandbagging!' 

The general public can hardly have any idea of the " sand- 
bagging ' : which is done at many Catholic church fairs. If 
possible they are held during the time of some pending election 
when politics run high and politicians are particularly anx- 
ious to curry favor with the largest number of voters. A 
Democratic night will be had on which the Democrats are ex- 
pected to turn out in force and spend their money lavishly. 
Then a Republican night will be had, on which the Republi- 
cans are expected to show themselves en masse and empty 
their pocketbooks. 

There are nights for the Mayor and prominent aldermen s 
and also nights for the candidates for political office. These 
men rally their friends, and the occasions add many dollars 
to the bank account of the rector. 

A certain Catholic pastor, who is over a very large city 
parish, sent to a candidate for the office of sheriff of 
his county about fifty tickets to his church fair, each 
calling for one dollar. The candidate refused to be " held 
up ' ' in such a manner. On the following Sunday that pas- 
tor publicly denounced from his pulpit that candidate, and 
commanded the people not to cast their votes for him, on the 
ground that he was no good for he had refused to buy fifty 



2.J2 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

tickets to his church fair. The candidate lost the election. 
There were many fairs going on at this time to which he was 
asked to give. 

At a fair held in the basement of the church of one of the 
largest Catholic parishes in America, this incident took place. 
There was present a politician who, for personal reasons, de- 
sired greatly to win the favor of the voters of that parish. 
He went to one of the parish priests and paid him liberally to 
call the crowd at the fair to order and to fulsomely introduce 
him for a few minutes' speech. So the fair was changed into 
a political meeting, for the good of the parish, and Mr. Poli- 
tician expatiated eloquently on the supremacy of the Catholic 
Church in America and the rights of the Catholic people. 
During his harangue another priest of that parish, who was 
hearing confessions upstairs while politics were being aired 
downstairs, learned the true secret of the political activity 
in the fair, and he went below, mounted the platform and 
complained bitterly of his brother priest's lack of attention to 
his duties in the confessional. The meeting then broke up. 
The fact was that its clerical interrupter was at that time in a 
half drunken state, and was the champion and in the pay of 
the rival candidate. 

Catholic church fairs are attempts to do what Jesus Christ 
said was impossible. He said : " Ye cannot serve God and 
Mammon." God, at them, is served upstairs by reciting the 
holy rosary, by going through the Stations of the Cross, by 
receiving the Sacrament of Penance in the confessional, by the 
Benediction of the Most Holy Sacrament and the Holy Sacri- 
fice of the Mass. If the fair runs into Lent, then a sermon is 
preached in which the people are urged against vices: Mam- 
mon is served downstairs at wheels of fortune, slot ma- 
chines, vaudevilles, " blind pigs," etc., etc. Upstairs the pen- 
itent is roundly censured for going to fortune tellers (else- 
where than at church fairs), and is commanded to put into the 
" poor box " an offering at least equal in amount to the for- 



GRAFT. 273 

tune teller's fee. Downstairs fortune tellers (professionals 
and amateurs) do a thriving business " for the greater honor 
and glory of God." 

The Pope's Life, Whiskey and Two Kinds of Pigs. 

In the fall of 1903 a book entitled " The. Life of Leo 
XIII " was raffled at a church fair, the chances being five cents 
each. At other church fairs bottles of whiskey were raffled 
at a higher rate per bottle — three chances for twenty-five 
cents. At another fair held in the basement chapel of a 
church, live geese, chickens, goats, sheep and dead pigs were 
exhibited and raffled. Some of the animals were put in the 
chapel sanctuary. There was a " blind pig," not far from the 
dead ones, which was in great favor with young and old, and 
some of the clergymen appeared to be very much attached to it. 

The stocks of liquors- for these church fairs are donated 
by distillers, brewers and saloon keepers. It is needless to add 
that the donations are forced. 

Contests. 

A common method of fleecing the people is by contest. 
It may be a beauty or popularity contest between two belles 
of the parish, or a popularity contest between two prominent 
priests or business men or politicians or labor bosses or fire- 
men or policemen or parochial school children. The friends 
of the contestants are expected to express their opinion by 
voting, paying so much for each ballot and being permitted to 
buy as many ballots as they care to cast. 

I know a priest who took in over ten thousand dollars from 
a contest over a gold-headed cane between two labor bosses, 
who had hundreds of men under them. 

I know a priest who got up a contest over a gold chalice 
between his parish and some mythical parish in a neighboring 
city. His own people worked like beavers, but the mythical 
parish won the chalice. 



274 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

At a church fair in the east a contest was gotten up 
between two parishes over the popularity of their respective 
pastors. The rivalry ran high. It ended at midnight on a 
Saturday or rather in the early hours of Sunday morning, in 
a free fight, at which blood was spilled, and the edifice had to 
be rededicated. 

Disreputable people are often forced to champion the 
contestants at church fair contests and to give generously. 
These contests are simply, in the language of a lately prominent 
German Catholic pastor, a " sandbagging of the people." 

The good Catholic people are scandalized by these annual 
fairs, filled, as they are, with all sorts of questionable attrac- 
tions. Devout Catholic people blush over these scandalous 
performances and try to ease their consciences by the pious 
reflection ;. " O, well, it is for the glory of God and His 
Church!" Poor, deluded people! It is not for the Glory of 
God and his Church, but, as a rule, the proceeds go into the 
insatiate maw of a grafting priest. 

The Paulist Fathers' Fair. 

On the opening night there was a prize fight between two 
children aged eight and ten years. There were other prize 
fights during the fair, and on Friday night, February the 19th, 
(the first Friday in Lent and the Feast of the Passion of our 
Lord Jesus Christ) a prize-fighter got his nose smashed in 
the prize-ring in the sanctuary, while in the church above him 
devout worshipers were going through the Stations of the 
Cross, led by one of their fathers in God. There were at this 
fair (in violation of the civil law) two of the most up-to-date 
slot machines and a wheel of forune. There were also special 
booths for fortune telling. Cigars and soft drinks were sold. 
All kinds of raffles were conducted, one of them being for a 
horse which had been presented by a convert. It was won 
by one of the parish priests. One night a newsboys' band at- 
tended and made so much music that the devotions and con- 



GRAFT. 275 

fessions in the upper church were abandoned. This fair ran 
into the third week in Lent, the season of prayer, penance and 
fasting. A policeman was detailed to receive the tickets or 
entrance fee at the door. The slot machines were a few feet 
away from him. 

The life work of the Paulists is the conversion of the 
non-Catholics. 

Jesus Christ scourged the money changers, or grafters, 
from the temple. What would have happened to the holy 
Paulist fathers if He had visited their church fair? 

I respectfully suggest to the Paulist fathers that running 
gambling devices and prize-fights in the church is not the way 
to win non-Catholics to embrace our Holy religion. 

This parish hopes to have a parish school in compliance 
with the statutes of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. 

This is an old parish, and during many years of its ex- 
istence, it had an immense income. The site of the first edi- 
fice, which was burned, is worth hundreds of thousands of 
dollars. Why should there be any debt on this parish? It 
faces extinction because of its debts. Where has the great 
cash income gone ? What has been done with its most valuable 

land? 

The Poor Box Graft. 

Even the necessities of the poor yield graft to Catholic 
pastors. The world at large labors under the delusion that 
priests and prelates are very solicitous about the poor. In 
every Catholic church there are prominently displayed poor 
boxes in which offerings are deposited by the Catholic people 
to relieve the necessities of the indigent and the unfortunate. 
The Catholic people give liberally. Do the popr get the bene- 
fit of the contributions? No, they do not. The pastor is the 
only one who has the key to the poor box. The poor box 
funds go to swell the pastor's graft. 

I have heard Catholic priests say that the giving of alms 
has a most pernicious influence upon the poor ; that it de- 



2j6 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

moralizes them; that it gets them into the habit of getting in- 
stead of giving, and that it induces the poor to settle in the 
parishes where they get help ; consequently, while they urge 
their people to fill the poor boxes, still they feel it to be their 
bounden duty to protect the poor against the pernicious effects 
of philanthropy, and this they do by deliberately misappro- 
priating the money to their own selfish purposes. 

St. Anthony Graft. 

Graft is made out of the devotion to St. Anthony. He 
was born at Lisbon in 1195 and died near Padua in 1231. He 
was a Franciscan monk, theologian and preacher in France 
and Italy. About four hundred years after his death he ap- 
peared to a lady in a dream and told her how the faithful could 
have certain things granted through his intercession. He is 
the saint whose favor is especially sought in matrimony, and 
for the recovery of lost and stolen articles. 

The devotion of St. Anthony consists of confession and 
communion in the church on nine consecutive Tuesdays. A 
statue of the saint is erected in the church and near it is placed 
a box to receive cash offerings of those who seek his inter- 
cession, the amount of the offering being an evidence of the 
petitioner's faith — little faith indicated by a small offering and 
great faith by a big offering. The people are taught that it is 
necessary to have great faith to secure the help of St. Anthony. 

The devotion to St. Anthony is becoming universal in 
America. There was a time when the Franciscan churches 
had a monopoly of the devotion. The priests of the other 
parishes saw that they were losing money by the monopoly 
of the Franciscans, so they resolved to establish the devotion 
in their own churches ; and now in the various Catholic 
churches there is a statue of St. Anthony with a box to receive 
the cash offerings, and his devotion is eloquently urged upon 
the Catholic people. Those who seek his intercession are num- 
bered by hundreds of thousands. 



GRAFT. I*]*] 

For the information of my readers I quote the following 
excerpts from a Catholic work entitled " St. Anthony's Bread 
for the Poor, and Prayers for Novenas and the Thirteen Tues- 
days in Honor of the Saint," compiled by Monsignor Patrick 
F. O'Hare, Rector of St. Anthony's Church, Brooklyn, New 
York: 

An instance of St. Anthony's gift of miracles and of his 
readiness to exercise it to the profit of the poor, is recorded 
in the process of his canonization. Close to the church that was 
erected in Padua to his honor, shortly after his death, a baby 
boy named Tomasino, twenty months old, was drowned in a 
pond. The distracted mother, standing beside the corpse in 
the presence of several friars and a crowd of workmen, prom- 
ised the Saint that, if he would restore he* son to life, she 
would distribute among the poor a measure of corn equal to the 
weight of the child. Instantly the dead babe awoke to new 
life, and stretched out his arms to his mother. (Page 13.) 

At Bourges a Jew called Guillard, was one of the bitterest 
enemies of Catholicity. The powerful sermons of St. Anthony 
had impressed, without entirely convincing, him. One day he 
held a long discussion with Anthony upon the real pres- 
ence of our Lord in the Eucharist, a dogma which, to his 
mind, was altogether inadmissible. " Brother Anthony, I have 
a mule," said the Jew ; " I will lock it up, and keep it without 
food for three days. At the end of that time I will bring it 
to the largest public square in the town, and there in pres- 
ence of the people, I will offer it a feed of oats. You, on the 
other hand, will come, carrying the Host, which, according to 
you, is the true body of the man-God. If the mule refuses 
the proffered food in order to prostrate itself before the mon- 
strance, I will become a Catholic." It was a solemn challenge 
and the Franciscan accepted it. During the interval the apos- 
tle gave himself up to fasting and prayer. On the day ap- 
pointed, Guillard made his appearance in the square, sur- 
rounded by a multitude of his adherents. From the opposite 
side Anthony approached, bearing the monstrance which con- 
tained the Lamb of God. In the middle of the square he 
stopped, and turning towards the mule, he addressed it in these 
words : ' In the name of thy Creator, whom I, though un- 
worthy, hold in my hands, I enjoin and command thee, O be- 



278 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

ing deprived of reason, to come hither instantly and prostrate 
thyself before thy God, so that, by this sign, unbelievers may 
know that all creation is subject to the Lamb who is immolated 
on our altars." At this same time one of the opposite party 
offered the oats to the famished animal. The mule, without 
taking the slightest notice of the food placed before it, obedi- 
ent to the voice of the Saint, went straight to where he stood, 
bent its knees before the Sacred Host, and remained in an atti- 
tude of adoration. At the sight of this evident marvel, the 
air was rent with the applause of the Catholics. The owner 
of the mule honestly acknowledged his defeat, and, faithful 
to his promise, publicly abjured his errors. Many of the sec- 
taries present, who had begun to doubt and sincerely sought 
for truth, were also received into the Catholic Church. (Pages 
42 and 43.) 

I have heard of men who dressed themselves in the skins 
of bears and other animals and performed in circuses, and the 
spectators believed that they were gazing on remarkable mem- 
bers of the animal kingdom. I wonder if these performers did 
not get the idea from reading about the pious mule of the 
guileless Jew converted by St. Anthony! 

What a fortune P. T. Barnum would have made out of 
that famished mule which preferred the adoration of the 
Blessed Sacrament to a feed of oats ! ! ! 

I take the following from the last mentioned work of 
Monsignor O'Hare : 

(St. Anthony's) funeral took place on June 17th, (1231) 
and was of the most imposing description. The mournful 
character of the burial was changed into a continuous tri- 
umphal ovation, on account of the numbers and astounding 
nature of the miracles operated that day. The blind, the 
deaf, the paralytic implored the aid of the " Wonder Worker," 
and all who touched his humble coffin were at once delivered 
from their infirmities. The gratitude of the people thereupon 
consecrated Tuesday to the honor of the Saint. Crowds gath- 
ered at his tomb on this day by preference, and it was the gen- 
eral belief at Padua that one would obtain on this day what- 
ever was asked of God through this Saint. This practice, 
which had spread far and wide, received a new and surpris- 



GRAFT. 279 

ing impetus centuries afterward*. It occurred in this way. 
A noble lady in Bologna, in the year 161 7, besought a favor 
of St. Anthony with much fervor and earnestness. For twen- 
ty-two years she had vainly desired that her marriage might 
be blessed with offspring. One night she saw the Saint in 
a dream. ' Visit," he said to her, " for nine Tuesdays my 
statue in the Church of St. Francis, and your prayers will be 
heard." The pious woman hastened to obey the directions of 
the Saint, and as a result of her fidelity and perseverance ob- 
tained the favor she so ardently desired. This happy response 
to prayer was soon noised abroad, and the devotion of the nine 
Tuesdays began to be practiced by countless souls. (Pages 
31 and 32.) 

St. Anthonv does not belong - to the city of Padua alone ; 
he is the Saint of the whole world. — Leo XIII. (Title page.) 

The Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure, declares that all 
miraculous graces may be obtained throngh the intercession 
of St. Anthony. This intercession is sought chiefly for the 
following objects: 

1. For the restoration to their owners of lost and stolen 
things. 

2. For the recovery of health in all kinds of sickness. 

3. For a knowledge of the will of God, regarding ourselves 
and others relative to the choice of an occupation or vocation. 

4. For the happy issue of our undertakings, whether they 
concern the honor of God, the welfare of our souls, or even 
mere temporal blessings. (Page 34.) 

The rich and the poor meet at St. Anthony's box. St. 
Anthony procures for the poor who invoke him the aid of the 
wealthy and providential blessings, and he obtains for the rich 
abundant favors, spiritual and temporal, but only on condition 
that they succor the indigent and distressed. . . The rich man 
must share with the beggar in this world if he would have fel- 
lowship and portion with him in the next (for) the poor are 
they of whom it is said that theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
(Page 23.) 

Within the past twelve years St. Anthony graft is made 
more especially under the devotion of St. Anthony's Bread 
for the Poor. This devotion seems to have begun about 



28o THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

March, 1890, in the shop of Louise Bouffier, a humble linen- 
draper of Toulon, France. I quote again : 

The fame of St. Anthony's bounty at the little shrine back 
of the Bouffier linen-shop of Toulon spread quickly, not only 
throughout that city, but also all over France; it passed to 
Spain, to Italy, to Belgium, to Portugal, and to all other parts 
of Europe. Thence the glad tidings were carried to America, 
to Asia, to Africa, and to Oceanica. The good news has cir- 
cled the globe. Everywhere St. Anthony is confidently in- 
voked. The Saint of the whole world, as Pope Leo calls him, 
is teaching the world that charity is the wide avenue to the 
favor of heaven. (Pages 15 and 16.) 

It is exceedingly easy to inaugurate the work of St. 
Anthony's Bread, whether in the aim of consecrating the pro- 
ceeds to the material necessities of the poor of a parish, of an 
orphan asylum, a community, or to the maintenance of a 
Catholic school. All that is requisite is to erect a statue, or 
even a simple picture of St. Anthony of Padua in some con- 
spicuous place in a church or chapel, that it may be of ready 
access to the public. A poor-box for offerings is placed at the 
foot of the statue or picture of the Saint, and the thing is ac- 
complished. (Page 19.) 

The widow's mite and the rich man's offerings are alike 
dropped into the wooden box at the foot of St. Anthony's 
statue. Money literally flows through this channel, and be- 
comes changed into bread for the poor. (!!!) (Page 5.) 

The rector of a parish holds the key to St. Anthony's poor 

box, and the offerings put into it go to swell his receipts from 

clerical graft. 

Relic Graft. 

A regular trade is carried on in sacred relics. Graft is 
made in this way by the ecclesiastics who supply the demand. 
Clerical friends, who were educated in Rome, assure me that 
Church authorities at Rome palm off embalmed corpses upon 
foreign priests and prelates, representing them to be the bodies 
of Saints. The purchasers, as a rule, know they are being de- 
ceived but since they get a written authentication which en- 



GRAFT. 28l 

ables them to dupe their parishioners and subjects at home, 
they are willing to pay the price. In like manner, pieces of 
bone and other so-called sacred things are trafficked in. 

A grafting pastor turns the possession of a relic into a 
source of great gain for himself. He preys upon the credulity 
of the honest Catholic people by craftily recommending de- 
votion to the relic which he has in the church, and he will 
arouse their enthusiasm by wonderful tales of marvelous bene- 
fits which devout Catholics in various places, at home and 
abroad, have experienced from devotions to such relics. 

I do not deny that there are in existence genuine relics, 
and I do not impugn the teaching of the Church in reference 
to the edification which may be derived by the Catholic people 
from a proper attitude towards them; but I do protest against 
the manifest fraud and graft which are more and more com- 
ing into evidence in our day in connection with the acquirement 
of and devotion to relics. 

The American daily papers are constantly putting before 
the people articles similar in purport to the following: 

Chicago Tribune, August 15, 1904. 

Piece of Cross in Gotham' Church. Unimportant Parish Pos- 
sesses One of the Rarest Collections of Sacred Relics. 

New York Bureau Chicago Tribune, New York, Aug. 14. 

In the smallest Roman Catholic church in the city a 
reliquary, said to be one of the most precious and representative 
of any in America, was shown at mass to-day. It is the Bo- 
hemian church of St. John, in East Seventy-first street. Au- 
thenticated by the Vatican, and accompanied by a certificate 
signed in 1842 by Cardinal Patruzi, then in charge of the Vat- 
ican collection of sacred relics, the church has a cabinet col- 
lection that cannot fail to impress the devout. 

In the center, upon a silver cross, is a little piece of wood, 
said to be a portion of the cross on which Christ was crucified. 
Near this is a part of a red robe worn by the Savior after leav- 
ing the sepulcher. There is also a scrap of the title of the in- 
scription on the cross, a chip from the table of the last sup- 



282 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

per, a shred of rope used to bind Jesus, a piece of the pillar 
at which he was scourged, a splinter of the crib that held the 
Christ child, a bit of soil from the grave of tjie Blessed Virgin, 
and a piece of the cloak of St. Joseph. 

Alongside the columns supporting the altar are affixed 
small pieces of bones of the twelve apostles. 

I assert that the foregoing article is a catering to a cre- 
dulity which is a disgrace to the enlightened Catholicity of this 
twentieth century. 

My dear Catholic people, do you know how you are fooled 
by these relic grafters? Let me tell you a few true things 
which I imagine will be new to you in reference to relics. In 
the first' place it is highly probable that there are but few 
genuine relics in existence, and it is improbable that many, 
if any, relics are genuine which claim to date from before 
the Middle Ages or the Renaissance. The people, centuries 
ago, cared very little for antiquities. Nations then were com- 
paratively small and they were constantly warring. During 
the first few centuries after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ 
his followers were poor, despised and inhumanly persecuted. 
They were hunted like wild beasts, and their burial places 
were desecrated. All of these conditions made against the 
securing, preserving and passing down from generation to 
generation of sacred articles, such as " a part of the red robe 
worn by the Savior after leaving the sepulcher," " a scrap of 
the title of the inscription on the cross," "a chip from the ta- 
ble of the last supper," " a splinter of the crib that held the 
Christ child," etc. Dr. Pastor, the great Catholic historian, 
openly confesses that the men of the Middle Ages and of the 
Renaissance had no sense of reverence for the past ; he says : 

In truth, the men of the Renaissance had as little sense 
of reverence for the past as those of the Middle Ages. . . The 
passion for the new style stifled all interest in the monuments 
of former days. It would be unjust in blaming the Renais- 
sance period for its reckless destruction of precious memorials, 
not to point out that the men of the Middle Ages were not 



GRAFT. 283 

one whit less indifferent; in the 13th century the famous 
tomb of St. Bardo at Mayence was demolished, and not a 
trace of it is left. . . The Carolingian tombs at St. Alban 
near Mayence completely disappeared during the early me- 
diaeval times. In the 13th century, the old cathedrals at Co- 
logne, Spires, Worms, etc., were treated in a similar manner. 
The feeling that we designate as piety, reverence, seemed un- 
known in the Middle Ages. (Dr. Pastor's History of the 
Popes, Vol. VI., p. 477.) 

History teaches that finally a traffic in antiquities (and 
this included relics) sprang up, and that deliberate deception 
was practiced. Dr. Pastor says: 

The demand for antiquities became so keen that the ex- 
treme difficulty of procuring them is often mentioned. George 
of Negroponte, writing from Rome in 1507, says, " The mo- 
ment anything is found, innumerable bidders for it start up." 
From the same letter we gather that a flourishing trade in 
such things was carried on by speculators, the prices con- 
stantly rising and falling. 

The rage for discoveries of course produced many forger- 
ies inspired by vanity or desire for gain. (Dr. Pastor's His- 
tory of the Popes, Vol. VI., p. 491.) 

The crusaders who went to the Holy Land did not want 
to return home without some tangible proof of their having 
been to Palestine, so they bought relics to take back with them. 
Kings and princes sought to show their zeal for religion by 
securing relics and giving them to churches. Bad Popes and 
Prelates greatly desired to secure relics because they saw the 
endless graft they could make out of them. 

The result of this traffic was the perpetuation of con- 
stant frauds. Relic hunters abounded, and they did not scru- 
ple to manufacture articles. In fact, there was often a dupli- 
cation of relics. Two abbeys claimed at the' same time to be 
in possession of the crown of thorns worn by our Savior. 
There have been other equally as disgraceful duplications of 
relics. 



284 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

The Council of Trent treated the subject of relics in its 
twenty-fifth session, held in December, 1563, and it expressed 
its earnest desire for the removal of abuses, for the abolition 
of unworthy gain in the veneration of relics, and of revelry on 
the occasion of their visitation. 

Churches which have celebrated relics are thronged with 
worshipers, and thousands upon thousands of dollars are giv- 
en in offerings by the deluded worshipers. 

I often wonder how the twelve apostles feel over their 
bones being broken into pieces and the pieces scattered over 
the earth for grafting priests to use to filch money out of the 
honest Catholic people. It is a wonder that the jaw-bones do 
not begin to talk and give the graft away. 

A distinguished clerical friend, who has lately traveled 
abroad, recently told me this : " From the persistent way in 
which I saw Catholic ecclesiastics sell pieces of the ' True 
Cross ' — the cross on which Christ was crucified — -I am con- 
fident that they have already disposed of enough of it to fence 
in the State of Kentucky." 

Charm Graft. 

Little images of different saints are sold and blessed and 
the owners carry them in their pockets in order to insure im- 
mediate attention to their prayers. Among these are the fol- 
lowing : 

St. Anthony — to help the owner recover lost articles. 

St. Joseph — to help the owner get rich. 

The Sacred Heart of Jesus — to help the owner get a hus- 
band or wife as the need may be. 

Grotto Graft. 

Many Catholic churches have grottoes. These are places 
where shrines are placed. Statues of the Blessed Virgin, of 
the infant Savior and of other holy beings are erected in them, 
and the people are urged to go to them to pray for special 
favors. As a rule they are made in imitation of rockeries, with 



GRAFT. 285 

moss and trickling water. The water is represented as pos- 
sessing supernatural virtue, although it may be derived from 
the city main or from a private pump. Sometimes ice is put 
around the pipes in a hidden place and the cold of the water is 
regarded as an evidence of its miraculous quality. Drinking 
cups are conveniently placed, and the faithful are recom- 
mended to drink freely and to take a supply home. Revolv- 
ing candlesticks and offering boxes complete the scene. 

Some of these grottoes are regarded as places where as- 
tounding miracles are wrought. 

I know a priest who is very prominent and wealthy." A 
few years ago he established a grotto in his church, and an- 
nounced publicly that he had imported several barrels of the 
blessed water of Lourdes which the faithful could obtain at 
the grotto. His barrels were like the cruse which held the 
widow's oil in the time of the prophet Elijah — they never 
gave out though daily drawn upon. 

Grotto graft goes to the pastor. 

Holy Thursday Graft. 

The Blessed Sacrament is generally kept enclosed in the 
tabernacle of the main altar. On Holy Thursday morning the 
Blessed Sacrament is removed and carried in procession. 
Priests and prelates, parochial teachers and pupils march in 
the procession around the church, while the people kneel, and 
the Blessed Sacrament is placed in what is called the altar of 
repose. Hundreds of candles surround it as well as a pro- 
fusion of costly flowers. At the foot of this last named altar 
is placed a collection basket. 

Catholic people frojn morning till night on Holy Thurs- 
day come to church to kneel in front of this altar of repose 
to adore the Blessed Sacrament. They are exhorted to put 
liberal offerings into the collection basket. They do. Who 
gets the money? The pastor. 



286 the parochial school. 

Good Friday or Holy Land Graft. 

In Catholic churches on Good Friday a crucifix (which 
embraces a cross with a representation of Christ upon it) is 
placed on a pillow just at the sanctuary rail and a collection 
basket is put near it. The Catholic people are exhorted to 
kiss the crucifix and are urged to place an offering in the bas- 
ket ; they are told that the offering will be sent abroad and will 
be used for the preservation and renovation of the holy places 
in Palestine. As this solicitation occurs at the end of Lent 
the good Catholic people are in a frame of mind to respond 
gladly, and large offerings are accordingly made. Thousands 
of Catholic people go to church on purpose to kiss the crucifix. 

Who handles the contents of the basket? The rector. 
Does the money get to Palestine? The only Holy Land it 
reaches is the pocket of the grafting pastor. 

Holy Saturday Graft. 

Holy Saturday is the day before Easter Sunday. On 
it there are appropriate religious ceremonies, among them 
being the blessing of the baptismal font and blessing water 
for Easter which is known as " Easter Holy Water." Large 
quantities of water are blessed, barrels and wash-tubs being 
borrowed from the neighbors, liquor dealers and others to hold 
the water. 

In some churches this water is bottled by the priests, 
kept on hand for sale and actually sold at so much per bottle. 
Who gets the profits from this bottling industry? 

This is not a small business, as Easter holy water is ex- 
pected to be kept in the homes of the devout Catholics all 
the year round, and to be supplied for twelve months they must 
have an ample quantity. 

There is a Jesuit parish in America which numbers twenty 
thousand people where this bottling industry is particularly 
in evidence. 



GRAFT. 287 

Easter and Christmas Graft. 

The children of parochial schools are directed by the sis- 
ters to bring in envelopes, furnished by the pastor, Easter 
and Christmas offerings to the Church on those days. Pub- 
lic inquiry is made by their teachers in the class rooms to as- 
certain who neglected to bring these offerings. The question 
is asked : " How many of you children did not bring an of- 
fering? Those who did not will stand up." To stand up un- 
der such circumstances is a great humiliation to a child. Those 
who stand are directed to procure the proper envelopes and 
to depart at once to secure the offering. Following the Easter 
of 1904 a parochial school teacher commanded all her children 
to stand who had failed to bring in Easter offerings ; and she 
severely reprimanded the delinquents, and said to them: 
1 When I was a little girl I always brought a Christmas and 
Easter offering." One of the children asked, " Where did 
you get the money, sister ? ' "I got it from my parents," was 
the reply; and thereupon the delinquent children were sent 
home to ask their parents, many of whom were poor people, 
for money to make an Easter offering. At that very time 
their pastor was just recovering from a debauch. 

For the Easter and Christmas offerings the pastors issue 
thousands of envelopes, of different sizes and colors to fit the 
various ages and classes. These envelopes bear, as a rule, some 
religious picture calculated to stir the religious emotions. The 
pastor gets all these offerings. 

At all the Masses on the Sunday preceding Easter and 
Christmas the people get the Gospel of money instead of the 
Gospel of Christ. They are urged to lay up treasure in heaven 
by putting cash in the Easter and Christmas envelopes. They 
are reminded of the heavenly mansions, and they are urged 
to make, by a generous offering, their title good to a heavenly 
house, on which there will be no taxes. 



288 the parochial school. 

Mission Graft. 

I now call attention to mission grafting, and I will 
describe an average case. The rector of a parish concludes 
to have a mission. Such a mission is generally held once 
every two years, alternating with a church fair. A mission is 
a succession of religious services for the people of the parish. 
As a rule it never lasts less than two weeks and in large par- 
ishes it frequently runs four weeks, the first week being de- 
voted to married women, the second week to the young women, 
the third week to the married men, and the fourth week to the 
young men. It opens at the Solemn High Mass on Sunday, 
and services follow in the evenings and mornings of the days 
of the mission, and sometimes on the afternoons of three or 
four days the children are gathered together for special serv- 
ices. Confessions are heard during the day and evening. 
For the mission the rector engages preachers from some Re- 
ligious Order. These preachers have " stock sermons " which 
they have learned by heart and " fire off " in the various par- 
ishes to which they are called for missions. The rector will 
have, as a rule, preachers from a different Order at each suc- 
ceeding mission. The mission is announced two or three 
weeks ahead. Placards are put up, and handbills are given 
out at the church door. The rector goes to dealers in religious 
articles and gets rock bottom prices ; then he orders a stock 
consisting of scapulars, rosaries, crucifixes, candlesticks, me- 
dallions, holy water fonts, prayer books, religious pictures 
of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, and other 
mission goods. These goods are placed in a booth in the rear 
of the church or in the basement chapel or in the parochial 
hall. Appropriate signs are placed calling attention to the 
goods. The preachers urge the people to buy these goods, tell 
them where they are to be found, and ask the people to bring 
the purchased articles to the altar rail immediately after morn- 
ing Masses to have them blessed, and some of them specially 
indulgenced. These articles are sold to the people at two or 



GRAFT. 289 

three times their cost price. A collection is taken up at each 
service, and sometimes an entrance fee is demanded at the 
door in addition. The sermons deal with those things which 
are calculated to quicken the devotion of the people and to 
stir their liberality. The people contribute most generously 
to these collections, which are taken up during the Masses 
in the morning and immediately after the sermon in the even- 
ing. The people are given to understand that all of these col- 
lections, less a moderate amount for the maintenance of the 
preachers during the mission, go into the coffers of the Re- 
ligious Order to which the preachers belong, to be used to 
educate young men for the missionary work of that Order. 
At the end of the mission for each division of the people a 
special collection is taken up for the same worthy purpose. The 
preachers urge this collection and in this are earnestly sup- 
plemented by the rector, who implores his people to be liberal 
to the holy fathers. The preachers generally pass the col- 
lection baskets which they frequently empty into large bas- 
kets which are carried immediately after them by the pastor 
and his assistants, who watch the people closely to discover 
any who may fail to give and to keep the holy preachers from 
slipping any of the collection into their own pockets. Dur- 
ing the mission the people, particularly the women, make gen- 
erous offerings to the preachers, outside of the collections, for 
Masses for their living and deceased relatives and friends. 
The services for each division end with a special sermon, 
special collection and the Benediction of the Most Holy Sac- 
rament and the Papal Blessing. All who attend the mission 
a certain number of times, and go to confession and com- 
munion, receive a plenary indulgence. A second plenary in- 
dulgence is gained by all those who are present at the final 
sermon, special collection, Benediction of the Most Holy Sacra- 
ment and the Papal Blessing. Now, look at the graft! The 
rector of the church gets all the collections and all the profit 
on the sale of the religious articles. At the close of the mis- 



29O THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

sion for each division the people renew their baptismal vows, 
sometimes the real or an imaginary baptismal font is erected, 
and the people hold lighted candles in their hands. They buy 
these candles from the rector, he making a profit on their 
sale, and after the people have held the candles a few minutes 
they extinguish them and they are collected by the altar boys 
and are used afterwards in the service of the church, thus 
saving the rector that much expense. He has both the can- 
dles and the money! 

A certain rector, who has at least fifteen thousand souls 
in his parish, and is a hard drinker, concluded to have a mis- 
sion. He engaged four Paulist preachers. He laid in a big 
stock of religious goods. The Paulist Fathers came. On the 
Saturday evening preceding the opening of the mission, he 
expatiated on his own life as a priest and recounted his many 
toils and sufferings in the vineyard of the Lord. He told of 
his valor at the Battle of Gettysburg, and described how he 
helped General Meade to hurl back from Cemetery Ridge the 
valiant Confederates. The truth was that he never saw that 
battle. Then he said : " We will open the holy mission to- 
morrow morning, and I will sing the Solemn High Mass." 
The leader of the Paulist band was warned not to depend upon 
the rector's singing the High Mass. The leader then di- 
rected one of his band to remain fasting so as to have some 
one ready to take the pastor's place. The morning came and 
a few minutes before the time for High Mass the rector said 
he would not sing the Mass. He was not in a fit condition 
because of drink. Were it not for the warning, one of the 
priests would have had to say Mass, even though he had broken 
his fast, to avoid the public scandal of having no Mass. The 
rector announced, however, that he wanted a parade around 
the church, preceding the solemn High Mass, to excite pub- 
lic attention; so he had the priests and altar boys form in 
line in the sacristy. The altar boys carried the cross, lighted 
candles, holy water, thurible and incense. The missionary 



GRAFT. 29I 

and parish priests were fully vested, and the rector brought 
up the rear dressed in cassock, surplice, stole, cope and ber- 
retta. They marched from the sacristy of the church into the 
rectory, through the rectory into the garden and onto the 
street, and then into the main entrance of the church, up the 
center aisle, the pastor endeavoring to chant the De Profundus, 
the Miserere and the Te Deum. They went to their respec- 
tive places in the sanctuary. One of the Paulists was the cele- 
brant of the Mass, and the other three were seated in chairs 
in the center of the Sanctuary. The rector mounted the plat- 
form of the altar, and turning around to the congregation of 
at least 2000 people, and blessing himself, said : " In the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 
Amen. My dear people, I am your pastor. I am a providen- 
tial entity. I was sent by God to guide and direct you. I 
have brought here these four wise young men to preach to 
you. They cannot do so without my authority. I have got 
my authority from God, and that authority I will now give 
to them, and they will preach God's word to you." He stag- 
gered down to the three Paulists, each of whom held a preach- 
ing stole, and taking from their hands the stoles he kissed them 
and put them on the Paulists and put his hands on their heads, 
made the sign of the cross over them, looked towards heaven 
and breathed on them. Then he said : " You have now re- 
ceived the Holy Ghost through me, and you may preach to my 
people." He then seated himself in the sanctuary, and the 
Mass proceeded, but during it he continually interrupted by 
giving unnecessary orders to the altar boys, whom he kept 
running around in every direction in the sanctuary. This mis- 
sion lasted four weeks and it netted the rector at least ten 
thousand dollars in morning and evening collections, special 
collections taken up at the end of the mission to each division 
of the people, and profits on the sale of religious goods, which 
total sum he put into his own pocket. The preachers got 
through the confessional, and in private and voluntary of- 



292 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

ferings, a large sum. The rector handed the preachers for 
their profitable services only $400. The leader of the band 
refused to leave the presbytery till he got $800, saying to 
the pastor : " You are not going to have all of our blood 
money." After a fierce contention he succeeded in getting 
$800 out of the pastor's $10,000. The people who con- 
tributed were given to understand from the altar by the mis- 
sionaries and the pastor that the pastor was not getting any 
of the money contributed, except just enough to cover the 
living expenses of his missionary guests and the extra light- 
ing bill for the church. They were urged with great earnest- 
ness to make generous offerings. Some of them to my per- 
sonal knowledge borrowed money to put into the collections. 
The faithful people thought that they were giving their money 
to God. They had not the slightest suspicion that a game of 
graft was being played upon them by the holy preachers and 
their own reverend father in God. The poor people ! Heaven 
help them! 

During the month of June, 1904, a prominent Catholic 
priest lost $50,000 in speculation. He went to the bucket shop 
about his December wheat and found the place in charge of 
the sheriff and the proprietors gone. Fortunately for him 
several mission preachers were then conducting a mission in his 
church, and at this time (Friday) the mission was about to 
end. The mission preachers urge a collection on the last 
Friday night of each mission, to be received on the following 
Sunday, and on the night of this " black Friday " the people 
present at the mission heard a plea for a large collection on 
the following Sunday which for urgency surpassed any they 
had ever heard before, and the object put before them was the 
education of. young missionaries and the conversion of Amer- 
ica. The people were told that at least one dollar was wanted 
from the poorest person in the parish and more from those 
in better circumstances, and that God would return a thou- 
sandfold whatever they might give. The preachers said that 



GRAFT. - 293 

if any one was so poor that he could not give a dollar at the clos- 
ing service on Sunday, at which a plenary indulgence would be 
obtained by those who would be present and discharge 
all the obligations, they would advise him to take a street- 
car ride instead of attending the service. When the collection 
was taken on that Sunday night a basketful of money was 
received. Surely it is the Catholic clerical gambler who has 
a cinch on easily recouping his speculative losses ! 

I know of Catholic priests who have bought large stocks 
of religious goods for missions, sold the goods at big profits, 
and then refused to pay their bills, some of them having to 
be sued, after vain appeals to their Bishops and Archbishops. 
A nice picture this, people praying on such specially indul- 
genced rosaries, and wearing such specially indulgenced scapu- 
lars ! 

A recently appointed Archbishop, who was asked to com- 
pel dead-beat priests to pay their bills, replied : " I did not 
come here to become a collector. In addition, I am afraid 
you will get into trouble ; if those priests hear that you came 
here they may boycott your store! 



>> 



Revolving Candlestick Graft. 

Inside the sanctuary rail in many Catholic churches are 
revolving candlesticks, provided with a number of tiers of 
metal sockets, the tiers rising in diminishing diameter. Each 
of these candlesticks will hold on an average about one hun- 
dred candles. Two boxes are placed near these candlesticks, 
one with 'a slot to permit the entry of money, and the other 
box filled with small candles. 

The faithful are taught that it is a holy and a wholesome 
devotion to get one of these candles, light it and place it in 
a vacant socket in the revolving candlestick, and they are 
told that they may perform this devotion for any intention 
imaginable. They are sometimes led to believe that if they 
perform the devotion for a suffering soul in purgatory, that 



294 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

that suffering soul ceases to burn at the very moment the 
candle is lighted and remains free from pain during the burn- 
ing of the candle, and that as soon as the candle dies out the 
burning commences again. 

In some of the churches there are two revolving candle- 
sticks to accommodate the people. 

Who gets the money that is deposited in the box? The 
needy pastor. 

Candlemas Day Graft. 

Candlemas Day is the second of February annually. It 
is the feast day of the purification of the Blessed Virgin. 

On the Sunday preceding Candlemas Day an announce- 
ment is made of Candlemas Day at each Mass, and families 
of the parish are requested to bring a supply of candles, at 
least a few pounds. Candles of the purest beeswax are re- 
quired, and for fear that the people will not get the pure ar- 
ticle in these days of adulteration the priests tell them that 
they have bought a large supply of candles which they have 
had analyzed and know to be absolutely pure, and that they can 
be purchased in the sacristy or vestibule of the church on or be- 
fore the morning of the feast. In fact the people are often pro- 
hibited from purchasing candles elsewhere, and they are told 
that if they buy elsewhere and present the candles for bless- 
ing in the church that the blessing will be no good. The re- 
sult is that the people purchase the clerical candles. 

The candles presented by the people are placed in the 
sanctuary before Mass on the day of the feast and they are 
immediately blessed by the officiating priest. After ftlass those 
who presented candles receive back one and sometimes two 
candles which they take to their homes to be used in case any 
member of the family should require the last Sacraments; 
and also to be used during lightning storms to keep away the 
lightning. 

The priest makes money in two ways on these candles. 
He buys them cheap at wholesale and he sells them at retail 



GRAFT. 295 

at an immense profit. I am led to believe that the priests do 
not secure pure beeswax but an inferior article. On Candle- 
mas Day the priest gets back for nothing ninety out of every 
hundred candles he has sold, and he keeps them presumably 
for use on the altar, but few of them are so used because of the 
prevalence of gas and electric light. In fact the priest sells 
the candles over again on next Candlemas Day. 

Indulgence Graft. 

Catholic people are not strangers to various forms of in- 
dulgences granted for the performance of various prescribed 
religious duties, neither are they strangers to an incessant 
demand for money at the services where these indulgences are 
obtained. 

Clerical grafters in America are making graft out of in- 
dulgences just as truly as the clerical grafters of former days 
made money out of them, even if the methods of getting the 
graft are not just the same. 

How strange it is that in the Church of Jesus Christ the 
loyal and devout Catholic people cannot earn an indulgence 
without having to look into a collection box ! 

Special Collection Graft. 

Pastors find many excuses for asking for special collec- 
tions. Money is solicited for repairs to the parish buildings, 
frescoing, painting, insurance, interest on debt, fuel, etc., etc. 
The object itself may be worthy but it is used to filch money 
out of the pockets of the faithful for selfish clerical ends. The 
Catholic people are liberal contributors to these special col- 
lections. They give far more than the object presented re- 
quires, and the grafting pastor pockets the excess. 

I know prominent pastors who say that special collections 
should be taken frequently ; that a month should never be al- 
lowed to go by without one ; that special collections keep the 
people in the habit of giving. . 



296 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Formerly the people gave to special objects by simply 
putting their money into the collection baskets, but now the 
custom is obtaining of having the people enclose their contri- 
butions in envelopes which are given out on the preceding Sun- 
day. On these envelopes the people must write their names, 
addresses and amounts, and the pastor personally collects them 
on Sunday. This new custom is followed so that the pastor 
may know what the people give and who fail to contribute. 

I have known pastors to say to their assistants, " Don't 
dance attendance upon these people who do not contribute 
when they are asked for money." 

Peter's Pence Graft. 

Even the taking of the Peter's Pence collection has been 
made the opportunity for graft. The cry is made : " O, the 
Holy Father is in great need of money ! Testify your love to 
him and your faith in Holy Mother Church by liberal con- 
tributions ! " The honest people make large responses. Does 
all the money reach the Vatican ? No ! only a fraction. Who 
gets the major part? Priests, over whom there is no financial 
supervision. 

The following resolution was passed by the American 
Federation of Catholic Societies, at its convention in Detroit, 
August, 1904: 

Detroit Evening News, August 4, 1904, p. 6. 

We commend to the societies which we represent in this 
convention generous endeavors to increase the contributions 
of the faithful known as Peter's Pence. 

What a thoughtful and unselfish resolution ! 

Two priests were once gratefully discussing their large 
Peter's Pence collections and rejoicing in the strong faith of 
their people. Said one to the other : " How much did you 
remit ? " " O, about a fourth," was the answer ; " how much 
did you keep ? " " O, I always charge the Holy Father sev- 



GRAFT. 297 

enty-five per cent for taking up His collection," was the frank 
response. 

The Peter's Pence collection appeals especially to the poor 
of all lands owing to their great faith and loyalty. I have 
known poor people to actually borrow money to put into this 
collection when their children were in need of food and clothes. 

In view of the accumulated millions of dollars amassed 
through the centuries by the Vatican, and the prodigality ex- 
hibited by princes of the Church, I fail to see the righteousness 
of calling yearly upon the poor Catholic people of the world 
to give of their hard earned money to Rome. 

I have seen poor people in Ireland walk barefoot, without 
breakfast, carrying to the church a Peter's Pence offering. 

Catholic University Graft. 

Pastors take up public collections, pursuant to the orders 
of their Bishop and Archbishop, issued in obedience to the 
command of the Holy Father, for the Catholic University at 
Washington, D. C, which is expected to wield a dominant in- 
fluence at the Capital of the Nation. The honest Catholic 
people contribute liberally. Do their offerings find their way 
to Washington? Yes, they do, that is, the balance that re- 
mains after the pastor has deducted his commission for taking 
up the collection. 

I am led to believe that the funds of the Universitv have 
been grossly mismanaged. During the year 1904 the Catholic 
world was startled by the news in the public press of the proba- 
ble loss of all or the greater part of the vast funds of the 
University by the business failure of a prominent Catholic 
layman to whom, it was reported, the University had loaned 
its money at an attractive rate of interest but with inadequate 
attention to the security. The Catholic people will be called 
upon to make the loss good, and Catholic clerical grafters are 
correspondingly happy. 

It might be interesting to know the records of the priests 
who receive in this University what a humorous friend of 



298 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. » 

mine calls " a post-mortem education." I know a number of 
them who are simply clerical blackguards. 

Sodality and Lodge Graft. 

The parish sodalities are fruitful sources of gain to the 
rector. At stated times their members approach the Holy 
Communion in a body, and they make a liberal offering to 
the pastor. Every time a member dies his or her sodality has 
a Mass said. In addition to these Masses, which are said fol- 
lowing the decease of sodality members, often a sodality has 
said during the year twelve Masses for the living and twelve 
Masses for the dead, and the pastor receives an offering for 
these. Retreats are given for sodality members to rest, restore 
and strengthen them spiritually; but the retreat always ends 
in a special collection, and a profitable business is done by the 
pastor in religious articles. The sodality treasuries receive 
money constantly from initiation fees and dues ; no embarrass- 
ment happens to the custodian of these funds, however, by 
reason of their bulk, for the pastor expects and receives pres- 
ents of sodality cash. I have known of sodalities being dis- 
banded which objected to clerical inroads upon their funds. 
Some pastors handle all sodality money and never account for 
it. 

There are also in Catholic parishes what may be termed 
lodges or courts of certain general Catholic Orders. No lodge 
or court can be instituted without the permission of the parish 
rector, for which he receives graft. Every time that a lodge 
loses a member a High Mass must be said, for which the pastor 
gets an offering. The members of each lodge or society ap- 
proach the Holy Communion in a body at least once a year, 
and they give the pastor an offering for a Mass, which he re- 
ceives from them when the arrangement is made and which 
Mass he may not say. These societies require doctors and 
attorneys, and the pastor sees to it if he has any available pro- 
fessional relatives that they secure the employment. 



GRAFT. 299 

Grafting priests make money by electioneering for certain 
candidates for office in various Catholic societies. Some of 
them spend weeks, and even months, ahead of a convention 
to secure votes to defeat certain candidates, and at the con- 
vention itself they are indefatigable workers. Some of them 
make long journeys for such electioneering graft. I know a 
prelate who is over eighty years of age who traveled from 
New York to St. Paul. 

Advertising Graft. 

Church calendars, programmes for church fairs, com- 
mencement days, picnics, etc., are lucrative sources of graft. 
Business men not only make donations of merchandise, but 
they pay liberally for space in the programmes. 

Saloons are given space in them, and wines and liquors 
for family and individual use are advertised. 

This advertising graft is no trifling matter. 

Sacramental Graft. 

Certain articles are used by priests in their ministrations 
to the sick. A sick call cabinet has been devised to hold these 
things. The dealer will go to a pastor and ask permission 
to sell the cabinet to the households of the parish. The pastor 
grants his permission for a consideration. I have never known 
these sick call cabinets to sell for less than five dollars and I 
fail to see how they can possibly cost over a dollar apiece 
to make. Every family is commanded to buy. 

Commission deals are also made by pastors with dealers 
in religious books, pictures and statuary, and the unsuspecting 
people are urged to supply themselves with these things. 
Sometimes these articles are represented as being specially in- 
dulgenced by Rome, and larger prices are consequently de- 
manded, whereas the fact is that articles which have been 
blessed are forbidden to be sold by the law of the Church — 
they must be bought first and blessed afterwards. 



300 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Theological students are much in evidence as canvassers 
for these pious frauds. 

Savings Bank Graft. 

The plan of the savings banks to induce people to save 
and to deposit their savings by giving depositors small metal 
banks in which they can place savings, but which the bank it- 
self can only open, has been adopted by clerical grafters, and 
now in Catholic parishes these metal banks are found in the 
homes of the faithful. They are given out by the pastor to 
hold the offerings from the family. The rector comes around 
or sends his assistant once a month to open the banks and take 
the contents. In some churches the people are told that 
amounts and names will be called out at the end of the year. 
This is done to frighten them into larger giving, and at the 
same time to prevent the assistants from embezzling. 

The people are taught that if they do not make generous 
deposits in these banks they may expect the curse of God to 
fall upon them. 

Eleemosynary Graft. 

The Catholic people are being importuned constantly in 
their churches, homes, places of business, and fraternal so- 
cieties to contribute for various Catholic eleemosynary enter- 
prises both at home and abroad. Often the begging is done 
by itinerant clerical solicitors. 

The people who contribute do not know whether the ob- 
ject is real or mythical. If it is a myth the contributions all 
go to graft ; if it is genuine the contributors do not know how 
much goes to it and how much to graft. 

Resident pastors join hands with these itinerant grafters 
and assist them in fleecing the faithful for a good round share 
of the collections. 

From what I know of the Bishops in Ireland I am cer- 
tain that they would never send clerical collectors to America 
to solicit funds for their churches if they knew of the grafting 



GRAFT. 301 

and dissipation connected with such efforts here or the sources 
from which much of the contributions come. 

Undertaking Graft. 

There are priests who are in the undertaking business, 
but they run it in the name of some relative or trusty in- 
dividual. They virtually compel the dying to direct that Mr. 
so and so (their own store) have charge of the funeral, or 
they compel the relatives of the deceased to send the business 
to him. 

Other priests have commission arrangements with certain 
undertakers. On each funeral which they get through 
clerical influence they pay the Reverend Father in God a cer- 
tain percentage. 

Undertaking graft is likewise made at Catholic hospitals, 
asylums and other institutions where inmates die. 

Employment Graft. 

There are priests who do a thriving business in the big 
cities in securing situations for Catholic men and women in 
all lines of employment. Their charge depends upon the 
amount of the monthly salary the employee receives. I have 
known them to exact a hundred dollar fee. 

"Pull" Graft. 

There are influential pastors in the great American cities 
who make a great deal of money by using their influence to 
help law-breakers escape punishment and to get them out of 
places of punishment after they have been convicted and sen- 
tenced in the courts. They importune verbally and in writing 
state's attorneys, judges, wardens, prison boards, State gov- 
ernors and Congressmen, the range and direction of their ef- 
forts being controlled by the amount of graft and influence. 
I have known priests to intercede verbally and in writing for 
houses of prostitution. There are priests who have in their 
possession diamonds, rings, watches and other articles of jew- 



302 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

elry which were given to them by the thieves who stole them. 
The watches they carry and the other articles of jewelry they 
wear when they are in lay costume, or they dispose of them 
by sale or gift. 

Thieves and murderers often escape their just deserts 
at the hands of the law through the " pull " of clerical grafters. 

School Procession Graft. 

I know of parochial schools where processions of the 
children are had which are simply dress parades, the garments 
being prescribed, and if the children can be persuaded to pur- 
chase their outfits at certain stores then there is graft, and such 
arrangements are usually made. The nuns generally sell to 
the children wreaths, veils, sashes and ribbons. These pro- 
cessions are also designed to entice the Catholic pupils of the 
public schools to attend the parochial school so that they can 
march in them. 

In some of these processions the priest, marching at the 
rear, carries the Blessed Sacrament, and the children marching 
ahead strew his way with flowers which their parents had to 
purchase, the parochial florist making a generous offering later 
to the rector or to the teachers. 

Commencement Day Graft. 

Commencement day is one of graft in parochial schools. 
From Easter till its arrival the school work is virtually aban- 
doned, and all the children are drilled in exercises for gradua- 
tion day, the graduating class being drilled in a play. On 
commencement day the children have to appear in prescribed 
suits, which they are often forced to rent through the rector 
or teachers, and the parents, relatives, friends and strangers 
pay a liberal entrance fee to see the children perform. Each 
child makes an appearance if it is only to cross the stage. 

Commencement day exercises are held in the largest halls 
obtainable, and often theatres are procured. Sometimes they 



GRAFT. 303 

are held in the church, the sanctuary being used for the stage. 
For weeks in advance of the rendition of the programme the 
Catholic parochial school children run around day and night 
peddling tickets, which range in price from fifty cents to one 
dollar. The children are encouraged to make large sales of 
tickets by little prizes, such as cheap rosary beads, scapulars 
or medals. An immense number of tickets is usually sold. 
Saloon-keepers are harassed by the importunities of the youth- 
ful ticket sellers. Saloon-keepers are urged by the rector to 
sell bundles of tickets to the brewers with whom they deal. 

In many schools the certificate of graduation, signed by 
the pastor, costs two dollars. 

Tuition Graft. 

The parochial schools demand tuition fees. These fees 
are fixed by the parish rector. If there were no public schools 
the Catholic parents would be absolutely at the mercy of any 
sordid rector. The public school prevents Catholic parents 
from being squeezed dry. Who gets the tuition fees? The 
rector. 

School Book Graft. 

I wonder if the dear Catholic people have ever thought 
about the profit there is in parochial school books ! Well, there 
is such a thing as parochial school book graft. It is a source 
of great gain to those who have it in charge. Think, Catholic 
people, of the books required for each child from the com- 
mencement to the close of his or her parochial school educa- 
tion ; think of the profit on all of these ; and then multiply that 
profit by the hundreds of thousands of parochial school chil- 
dren, and perhaps you will be able to comprehend the magni- 
tude of this kind of easy graft. 

About the only way for a parochial school superintendent 
to stop this kind of grafting by parochial school principals is 
to erect a printing plant ; but then this simply transfers this 
graft from the priest to his bishop or archbishop. 



3O4 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Catholic people will do well if they ponder carefully the 
action of any bishop or archbishop who starts a publishing 
plant. It is not an enterprise which is as innocent and un- 
selfish as it seems. Look closely and you will see that the idea 
is conceived, brought forth and nurtured by graft. 

Accident Suit Graft. 

The public has no idea of the money that is made by cler- 
ical grafters out of accident suits. Every day, men, women 
and children are being maimed by railways, street-cars, ele- 
vators, defective side- walks, etc., and each injured one has a 
claim for damages, whether well or poorly founded, and can 
begin a suit for damages. If the injury is severe and the 
negligence of the defendant is shown to have been gross a jury 
may assess heavy damages. 

Priests often act as settlement agents, and they make the 
injured person pay liberally for such service. 

This kind of graft is not to be ignored because in large 

parishes of Catholic working people some one is injured almost 

daily. 

Testimony Graft. 

There are priests in the great American cities who do 
not scruple to go on the witness stand in the courts of justice 
as character or alibi witnesses, or to give other " necessary ' 
evidence, for graft. 

I know several famous cases in which such priests have 
appeared as witnesses. In one of these cases two Jesuit priests, 
among the most prominent in the United States, appeared on 
the witness stand, and under the solemnity of an oath testi- 
fied in behalf of the defendant, who was charged with pollut- 
ing the very fountains of justice. One of these Jesuits was 
an alibi witness and the other was a character witness. 

This graft is sporadic in its character, and I refer to it 
to put judges and jurors on their guard. 



GRAFT. 305 

Naturalization Graft. 

There are priests in America who do not scruple to make 
graft out of the naturalization of foreigners who have not 
been in the United States the prescribed legal time but who for 
personal reasons desire to become citizens, by assisting them to 
secure naturalization papers. 

Janitor Graft. 

A mercenary rector will make his pupils do janitor 

work. I have seen young boys and girls cleaning the outside 

of third story windows in parochial school buildings, and they 

had to sit or stand on the window ledge while working. They 

also are compelled in some parochial schools to do inside 

cleaning. 

Assembly Hall Graft. 

Assembly halls are provided in parochial schools. Such 
halls are rented by rectors to various societies, and they pocket 
the rent. They give dances in them and pocket the receipts. 
They also rent them for dances. 

A prominent pastor gave a dance (under the patronage 
of the Young Ladies' Sodality of the Blessed Virgin) on St. 
Patrick's night, 1904, in the assembly hall of his new school, 
which had cost about $100,000.00, at which over three hun- 
dred couples were present at a good fat fee apiece. He got 
this dance money, and also the profits from the refreshment 
counters. His receipts from the cigars and soft drinks were 
not to be despised. Any parochial society in his parish which 
refuses to rent that hall will have to disband. It is now 
rented six months ahead for dances. 

Miracle Working Graft. 

There are priests who impose upon the credulity of Cath- 
olics by claiming to be able to restore the health of the sick by 
supernatural power. The news percolates through the ranks 
of the faithful that Father so and so, because of his peculiar 



306 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

sanctity of life, can heal the sick. Sick people seek out such 
a priest, and he treats them by prayer, making the sign of the 
cross, breathing upon them, applying holy water and by men- 
tal suggestion. 

They insinuate that they do not make any charge for their 
treatment, but suggest that it would help the treatment to 
have some Masses said for which the patient can make an 
offering. These miracle workers make great graft. The treat- 
ments are administered at the rectories and at the homes of 
the sick. - 

One priest made a specialty of working miracles by using 
a certain brand of holy water which he put up. His labora- 
tory was stocked with bottles and corks. In the corner was 
an ordinary city water hydrant. He got tired blessing a 
quantity of water from time to time so he blessed the city water 
hydrant and then when he wanted holy water he just filled the 
bottle directly from the faucet. The holy water was to be 
taken internally and applied externally. I know of a case 
where a poor workman gave him fifteen dollars to cure his 
wife. All the poor man got for his money was a bottle of 
this holy water. The wife died and the family was evicted 
for non-payment of rent. 

The Last Straw. 

Catholic clerical grafters even made money out of my 
unjust and invalid excommunication of October, 1901. They 
advised the people to get Masses said for my conversion, pre- 
tending to be my warm friends in order to deceive the people. 

A certain notoriously drunken and grafting rector 
was particularly solicitous in my behalf. A gentleman went 
to see him to arrange for a Requiem Mass, and noticing his 
shaky appearance said : " Father, you seem to be very de- 
crepit." " No wonder I seem so," replied the priest, ' for 
1 am on my knees day and night praying for Father Crowley ; 
the doctors tell me that I am likely to get locomotor ataxia 
from constant kneeling ; now look here, I know that you are a 



GRAFT. 307 

warm friend of Father Crowley; I am afraid there is very 
little hope for his salvation ; the only way that I can see to 
save him is by Masses, High Masses, for these Low Masses are 
no good ; the High Masses never fail ; when I go on the altar 
in my unsullied vestments and the organ peals and I lift my 
hands and raise my voice, my cry penetrates the courts of 
heaven, reaches the Almighty, takes Him by violence and com- 
pels Him to grant my prayer. Now, you are worth fifty thou- 
sand dollars, and I am directed by God to tell you that you 
ought to pay me at least half of your fortune to have me say 
High Masses for the salvation of Father Crowley ; and I will 
also give you permission to go through the parish and solicit 
others to follow your noble example." Up to date my friend 
has wisely kept his estate intact. 

I have reason to believe that large amounts of graft were 
made in this way, because Masses were said for me from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific at the suggestion of grafting priests. 
The parochial school teachers had the children kneel and pray 
for me in the class rooms. They also had them save their 
pennies to make an offering for Masses in my behalf. 

I know I have had God's blessing. The honest prayers of 
the innocent children and misguided people no doubt brought 
divine help to me to persevere in my crusade against sin. 

The Handling and Investing of Graft. 

Who helps the pastor handle his graft? Some trusty 
relative, such as a brother or a sister or a niece or a nephew 
or a cousin. These relatives are usually found among the 
regular inmates of parochial residences and are especially 
in evidence during church fairs and missions, and at the Christ- 
mas and Easter collections. They come to safeguard the paro- 
chial funds and they most liberally reward themselves for 
their arduous labors. Many of these relatives have large 
bank accounts, and numerous real estate holdings. They get 
inside tips on the. location of new churches, and buy up the 
desirable property and reap a handsome profit by the advance 



308 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

in value produced by the establishment of a new parish. An 
examination of the records of the various counties in which 
are located the big cities, would disclose some very interesting 
facts in reference to real estate being owned by priests and 
their relatives. 

The pastor's housekeeper is often the power behind the 
throne, even though she may be no. blood relation. 

Some of my readers may say, " Well, I don't believe that 
these Catholic priests have so much money, I never hear of 
their investing any of it or paying taxes." Clerical grafters 
are large investors in real estate in outside dioceses, and in 
stocks and bonds, as well as in " get-rich-quick " enterprises. 

Some of my readers may wonder how the various Cath- 
olic hospitals, asylums, orphanages, etc., are supported, and 
they may think that much of the money which the priests re- 
ceive goes to these institutions. Not so. They are conducted 
by various Religious Orders which solicit the necesary funds, 
and they have no financial claim upon the rectors of parishes. 

A Suggestion in Arithmetic. 

Catholic readers, why not estimate the income of your 
pastors? You know the number of worshipers who attend the 
Masses said in your churches, and approximately the min- 
imum which each one pays for a sitting ; you know the urgency 
of the various church collections, and you can make a fair esti- 
mate of the responses ; you know about how many marriages, 
funerals and baptisms occur in a year; you can form an ac- 
curate idea of the success of the church mission, and of the 
fair; you can make an accurate guess at the pastor's receipts 
from sociables, picnics, card parties, dances, etc. You can 
arrive at a reasonable estimate of the receipts from the paro- 
chial school children for tuition. It will not be a difficult mat- 
ter for you to estimate the rector's legitimate expenses. Make 
the total of his receipts and disbursements and you will see 
something of the graft of which I complain. 



GRAFT. 309 

Let me help you, Catholic readers, to calculate the annual 
receipts of your pastor by putting before you a conservative 
hypothetical statement of the income of the rector of a small 
city parish, and the income of the pastor of a large city parish. 

Let us suppose that only two Masses are said on Sunday 
in the small parish, and that 250 worshipers attend each 
Mass; and that ten cents, on the average, is paid at the door 
by each worshiper; this would equal $25 for each Mass or 
$50 for both Masses. Suppose that ten cents, on the average, 
is received from each worshiper, either as a contribution to 
the Offertory collection or for a share in a Mass which is 
to be said sometime during the week; this would equal $25 
at each Mass or $50 at both Masses. Add together the $50 
received at the door and the $50 received for shares 
in the prospective Mass, and the result will be $100, which is 
the income on one Sunday. Multiply this $100 by 52 and the 
product will be $5,200, which is the amount that the pastor 
receives for one year from his Sunday services alone. In ad- 
dition to this amount he receives offerings on the six Holy 
Days of Obligation, and proceeds from various forms of graft. 
His total annual income is at least $10,000. 

Now let us suppose that five Masses, (exclusive of the Mass 
for the children), are said on Sunday in the large city parish, 
and that, on the average, 1,500 worshipers attend each Mass; 
and that ten cents, on the average, is paid at the door by each 
worshiper; this would equal $150 for each Mass or $750 for 
the five Masses. Suppose that ten cents, on the average, is 
received from each worshiper, either as a contribution to the 
Offertory collection or for a share in a Mass which is to 
be said sometime during the week; this would equal $150 at 
each Mass or $750 at the five Masses. Add together the $750 
received at the door and the $750 received for shares in the 
prospective Mass, and the result will be $1,500, which is the 
income on one Sunday. Multiply this $1,500 by 52 and the 
product will be $78,000, which is the amount that the pastor 



3IO THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

receives for one year from his Sunday services alone. In 
addition to this amount he, too, receives offerings on the six 
Holy Days of Obligation, and proceeds from various forms of 
graft. His total annual income is at least $100,000. 

The pastor of a medium city parish is annually in receipt 
of as much money as the Government of the United States 
pays the President. 

What does the good pastor do with his income? Does 
he lessen the parish debt? Does he support benevolent insti- 
tutions? Does he send it to the Pope? No, he uses it mainly 
for his own convenience, pleasure and profit. 

Assistant pastors receive from twenty-five to fifty dollars 
a month, their food and shelter and their laundry, minus boiled 
shirts, cuffs and lay-collars. It takes a small amount of money 
comparatively to pay the assistant pastor, the janitor, the gas 
and coal bills, insurance and painting bills. 

Catholic people, let me ask you again, what becomes of the 
money received by your pastor? God and the rector alone 
know. If you would really like to find out I suggest that you 
ask your pastor, but let me caution you to secure police pro- 
tection first. 

Conclusion. 

Leo XIII. said : 

Let the workingman be urged and led to the worship 
of God, to the earnest practice of religion, and, among other 
things, to the keeping holy of Sundays and Holy-days. Let 
him learn to reverence and love Holy Church, the common 
Mother of us all ; and hence to obey the precepts of the 
Church, and to frequent the Sacraments, since they are the 
means ordained by God for obtaining forgiveness of sin 
and for leading a holy life. (Great Encyclical Letters of Leo 
XIII., p. 244.) 

How can any sensible Catholic, rich or poor, be led to 
the worship of God by clerical grafters? The sad fact is that 
multitudes of honest Catholic people are becoming infidels 
owing to the mercenary conduct of their Reverend Fathers and 



GRAFT. 311 

Lords in God, who are, as already explained, the officers of the 
parochial school. 

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, warned the people 
against the bad example of the Scribes and Pharisees, who 
were their religious guides. Our Lord's words are strikingly 
applicable to grafting and immoral Catholic priests and pre- 
lates, and I quote from His sayings, as they appear in the 
Catholic Bible, (St. Matthew's Gospel, Chap. XXIII, verses 
13, 14, 25, 2.7, 28), as follows: 

Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ; because 
you shut the kingdom of heaven against men, for you your- 
selves do not enter in; and those that are going in, you suffer 
not to enter. 

Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ; because you 
devour the houses of widows, praying long prayers. For this 
you shall receive the greater judgment. 

Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ; because you 
make clean the outside ot the cup and of the dish, but within 
you are full of rapine and uncleanness. 

Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ; because 
you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear 
to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and 
of all filthiness. So you also outwardly indeed appear to men 
just; but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 

The inordinate love of money by Catholic priests and 
prelates is making atheists of Catholic people. The Catholic 
laity cannot endure clerical avarice. In this connection I 
quote as follows : 

For the vice of avarice there seems to be less to be said 
than for any other of the failings to which flesh is heir. We 
remember from our days of the classics how even the pagans, 
who made gods of some of the other vices, detested avarice. 
We recollect how the Roman poet gives the lowest place in 
hell among parricides to those qui divitiis soli incubuere re- 
perils, adding, quae maxima turba est (Virg. TEn. vi. 610). 

Milton makes the angel of wealth less attractive than any 
other of the angels that fell : 



312 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

" Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell 
From heaven; for ev'n in heaven his looks and thoughts 
Were always downward bent, admiring more 
The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold, 
Than aught divine, or holy else enjoy'd 
In vision beatific." 

Avarice was the ruin of the one bad Apostle. It ought 
to be the most unnatural in followers of Him who had not 
where to lay His head, and yet often it is looked upon as the 
clerical vice. 

Bishop Moriarty tells us that the laity hate the vice of 
avarice in a priest more than any other. " When they talk 
of a priest or of the priesthood there is no more frequent sub- 
ject of conversation than our love of money or the amount of 
money that we receive or possess. . . . They despise and 
hate an avaricious priest. Avarice they never pardon, either 
in life or in death. To them it is as the sin against the Holy 
Ghost. It is quite clear that if the first preachers of the Gos- 
pel admitted none to Mass who could not pay, and drove hard 
bargains for their presence at the weddings of the first Chris- 
tians, the world would never have been converted." (The 
Priest, His Character and Work, by James Keatinge, Canon 
and Administrator of St. George's Cathedral, Southwark, Eng- 
land, and Diocesan Inspector of Schools, p. 115.) 

It is said of St. Bernard : 

His earnest desire and the yearning of his soul is ex- 
pressed to the Pope in the following language : " Would that 
I might have the happiness of seeing, before I die, the restora- 
tion of that glorious age of the Church when the Apostles cast 
out their nets, not in search of silver and gold, but to take 
hauls of precious souls." 

St. Bernard's earnest desire is my daily prayer. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL PUPILS. 



Inadequately Instructed Secularly. 

Having in preceding chapters dealt with the officials and 
teachers of the parochial school, I deem it proper at this time 
to consider the parochial school pupils. 

As to the secular instruction imparted to children in the 
parochial school I feel that I need say very little about its in- 
adequacy in view of what I have said about the deficient 
pedagogic talents and training of the parochial school officers 
and teachers. Incompetent teachers in secular things cannot 
give children the requisite instruction. 

The fact is, the parochial school children are very inade- 
quately instructed in purely secular knowledge, and the children 
of the public school enter upon the duties of life incomparably 
better informed and trained. 

I have heard complaint after complaint from Catholic 
parents that the parochial school did not fit their children 
for life ; that their training lacked the virility necessary to meet 
the multitudinous demands upon American manhood and 
womanhood of this aggressive age ; and that the parochial 
school militated against the development of symmetrical char- 
acter. I can readily understand how such ill effects should 
result from parochial school training received under the prin- 
cipalship of a drunken, sordid, or even worse, rector, and the 
teaching of incompetent teachers. 

I have known intelligent Catholic parents to summon up 
enough courage to remove their children from the parochial 
school and send them to the public school, notwithstanding 



3 X 4 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

the threats of eternal damnation for themselves and for their 
children uttered by priests and prelates. I have in mind now 
the case of a bright child who was taken from the parochial 
school by her parents and sent to the public school. In the 
parochial school she was in the eighth grade but the public 
school found her only fit for the fifth grade. 

My understanding is that children who are taken out of 
the parochial school and sent to the public school are always 
put in a lower grade. Priests and prelates assert that they 
are put into the lower grade through prejudice and to bring 
a reproach upon the parochial school. This is a groundless 
charge as any fair-minded person must feel when it is remem- 
bered how many public school officers and teachers are Cath- 
olics. The fact is that such Catholic children are placed in 
the public school just where the parochial school has fitted 
them to be put. 

Irreligious Instruction. 

Now what are the facts in reference to the religious in- 
struction imparted to the pupils of the parochial school? It 
must be remembered that the necessity for daily indoctrinat- 
ing the children with religious truth in the school room is the 
supreme excuse offered for the existence of the parochial school. 

I assert that the children of the parochial school receive 
a religious training which is simply hypocritical, and instead 
of being the foundation for the holding of a superstructure 
of religion and morality its logical effect is the demoralization 
of the child. 

Precept and practice must go together in religious in- 
struction or the result cannot fail to be disastrous to the pupil. 
If an officer or a teacher of the parochial school teaches a 
precept and then practices the opposite of that precept I hold 
that the children are thereby trained for the kingdom of Satan 
and not for the Kingdom of God. The evil effect of such in- 
consistency in an instructor of youth is destructive when the 
offender is a secular teacher and does not wear the sacred 



PUPILS. 315 

vestments of religion ; but when that instructor or officer is 
clad in a religious garb the teaching of righteousness and the 
doing of iniquity simply mean moral and spiritual disaster 
to the pupils. Precept and practice are lamentably foreign to 
each other in the lives of the officers and teachers of the paro- 
chial school. The religious training of the parochial school 
is worse than failure. 

But in the parochial school there is, alas, what amounts 
to a positive teaching of irreligion. When children are de- 
liberately instructed to stultify their moral sense I assert that 
irreligion is thereby taught. Let us glance at this irreligious 
teaching. Parochial school children are taught that priests 
and prelates are holy or supernatural beings. I have known 
this kind of instruction to be imparted in parochial schools : 
' Children, if a priest should tell you that your hand is mar- 
ble, and an angel from heaven should at the same time tell 
you that your hand is flesh, you must believe the priest and 
disbelieve the angel ! ' I make bold to say that the effect of 
such teaching is to stultify a child. 

The children are taught to attribute manifest clerical 
delinquencies to a religious cause, and thus they are led to 
stultify themselves intellectually and morally. A drunken 
priest staggered in the presence of parochial school children, 
and the nun said, " O, the dear priest ! He is so weak ! he has 
been making a novena, he has been fasting and praying for 
nine days, and he is so weak that he can hardly walk." That 
drunken priest was the pastor of that parish and consequently 
the principal of that parochial school. Pie was constantly under 
.he influence of drink, and the nuns and children knew it. In 
fact, he at that very time had been an habitual drunkard for 
over a quartei of a century, and is to-day. I heard him say 
repeatedly : " The education and enlightenment of the Cath- 
olic children will be the ruination of the Church." In his paro- 
chial school there are 15 nuns and about 1200 pupils. 

Parochial school children have their moral sense blunted 
by being taught that God will eternally damn the Catholic 



3l6 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

who exposes a bad priest. The children see in this instruction 
a scheme to cloak sin, and it leads them to regard with horror 
a God who is in league with bad priests to protect and keep 
them in power. 

In a large Jesuit school a nun told her class, " Children, 
you may not have heard that there are bad priests, but when 
you grow up you will probably hear about them and see them. 
You must pay no attention to what you hear and see about 
them ; you must not give it a thought, no matter how bad 
they may . be, for they are the ambassadors of Jesus Christ. 
If you hear about them you must close your ears, and if you 
see them you must close your eyes, and you must close your 
mouths ; you are bound by the laws of God to close your ears, 
your eyes and your mouths. Never speak about bad priests ; 
if you do something dreadful will surely happen to you." 
Then she told the children some terrible things which she said 
had befallen Catholics who had talked about bad priests. 

Children Demoralized. 

Parochial school children are positively demoralized by 
the use that is made of the parochial schools by the officers 
and teachers in connection with parish fairs. In the preced- 
ing chapter I described various kinds of church fair graft, 
and promised to show later the pernicious influence of church 
fairs upon the parochial school children. I now undertake 
to fulfill that promise. 

The parochial school is the powerful auxiliary of the 
iniquitous church fair. Its children are compelled to do their 
utmost to make the church fair a financial success. I have al- 
ready stated that the parochial school principal gets all the 
money. 

Priests permit the desecration of their churches, for in 
many instances the fairs are held in church basements. These 
basements are a duplicate of the upstairs part, being furnished 
with altars, sanctuary, baptismal font, pews, and choir plat- 
form with organ. Funeral Masses and Mass for the children 



PUPILS. 317 

on Sundays are often said in these basements, and the con- 
fessional boxes are located in them. The basement is as holy 
as any other part of the church. When fairs are held in these 
basements the pews are removed, the choir platform is en- 
larged to accommodate musicians who furnish dance music, 
and also to accommodate professional vaudeville performers 
who are hired by the pastor. 

Some pastors have dancing at these fairs in the church ; 
others have wheels of fortune and slot machines ; some have 
all these things ; some have part of them. At some of the 
fairs they sell liquor. They also raffle bottles of whiskey — on 
one occasion a little girl won a bottle of whiskey and she and 
her little companion drank it and nearly died; and at the same 
fair a little girl won two bottles of whiskey which she took 
home, and her parents used it, got drunk and into a fight and 
the husband lost his job. 

As a rule these fairs, whether held in the church basement 
or not, have on Saturday nights special attractions to draw 
the people and they close at one or two o'clock Sunday morn- 
ing. Dancing, slot machines and other money-making schemes 
run till the last minute. These slot machines are prohibited 
by law, and saloon and other users of them are severely pun- 
ished, but Catholic rectors use them with impunity at their 
church fairs. The Catholic pastors get slot machines which 
have actually been confiscated by the civil authorities. The 
public should remember that at Catholic fairs all the articles 
are raffled, chance-books being issued against each article and 
chances sold as widely as possible, the raffle taking place upon 
the closing nights of the fair. The fairs often last two, three or 
four weeks. 

Catholic girls at these church fairs are brought into con- 
tact with the vicious and the lewd. They are given chance- 
books which contain numbered tickets, each ticket entitling 
the holder to one chance at the drawing of some prize. These 
girls are encouraged to make large sales of these chance 



3l8 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

tickets, and they go to all sorts of persons ; I myself have 
seen them coming out of disreputable saloons with chance- 
books in their hands at a late hour of the night. A lamentable 
number of these poor innocent girls take their first lesson in 
harlotry upon these trips for the sale of chance tickets. It is 
notorious that lustful men patronize these church fairs because 
at them they have the opportunity to form the acquaintance 
of lovely, virtuous Catholic girls, whom they could never meet 
under other auspices ; and it is equally notorious that all over 
the country, multitudes of these beautiful girls have been se- 
duced by these men. As soon as a man enters the fair a lady 
runs toward him begging him to " take a chance ! ' This in- 
nocent remark gives him a chance to indulge in vile innuendo. 
No introductions are necessary at these church fairs — in. fact 
an introduction would be regarded as an insult. The ladies, 
young and old, are all on the reception committee. These 
ladies are given this license to act in this free and easy way 
in order to increase the receipts of the fair "for the greater 
honor and glory of God ! ! !" 

Catholic boys are taught and encouraged to smoke, drink 
and gamble at these fairs. Priests and laymen at these fairs 
in the church smoke cigars and cigarettes. Tobacco is sold 
in the church. The next Sunday these priests preach against 
vice ! ! ! 

The necessity of making the fair a great success is urged 
upon the children and the teachers on and off the altar, and 
in the parochial school class-room, during the several weeks 
preceding the fair, and also while it is running. I know a 
parochial school principal who tells his children publicly, half 
in jest and half in earnest, that if their parents will not give 
them money to spend at the church fair matinees they are 
privileged to steal it. Some of them do not see the jest and 
act on the earnest. 

The parochial school, as a rule, gives its children two 
half holidays to enable them to attend the fair, although this 
is not necessary as the children are there night after night. 




FOR GOD AND HIS CHURCH! 



32D THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Some children get at these fairs their first lesson in em- 
bezzlement. They spend the money which they collect on the 
chance-books. 

As a rule " blind pigs " are run at church fairs. Two 
rectors in a prominent Archdiocese have taken out licenses 
to sell liquor, which enables them to sell with impunity in the 
school hall or church basement. 

There was a cheap vaudeville at a certain fair held in 
a parish church. Two of the actors seduced two of the parish 
girls, and one of them had to be placed in the convent of the 
Good Shepherd. 

But this demoralization affects neighborhoods and brings 
into its vortex all the children irrespective of the religious 
beliefs of their parents. This statement is borne out by the 
prevalence of " child gambling " schemes. About the begin- 
ning of the spring, 1904, the Chicago press contained many 
articles concerning " Child Gambling." Various schemes were 
being operated in the vicinity of the schools to induce chil- 
dren to gamble. The municipal authorities became aroused 
to the enormity of the evil, and the police were instructed 
to stamp it out. This " child gambling " is but a sequence 
of " child gambling " at Catholic Church fairs. 

Parochial schools are built near the parochial residences, 
and the children are scandalized by seeing liquor wagons back 
up t® the priest's dwelling and unload large stocks of intoxi- 
cating beverages. Temperance ladies have several times been 
on the point of calling public attention to this pernicious con- 
duct. And, yet, the public schools are " traps of the Devil ! ! ! " 

Parochial school children may be subjected to outrageous 
treatment, there being no set standards of humane discipline. 
I know two little motherless Catholic girls who were sent to 
a parochial school, the father willingly paying the required 
tuition fees. These little girls were frequently made to do 
janitor work. They were very delicate children, and the work 
made them sick. Their father told them to tell the nun who 



PUPILS. 321 

was their teacher that he did not want them to do janitor 
work. The children told the nun. Her answer was a severe 
reprimand. She vented her wrath upon them by refusing to 
permit them to go to the toilet room during school hours. Fi- 
nally their father threatened to blow up the school if the brutal 
treatment of his children occurred again. It ceased. 

The Real Need. 

The only excuse of apparent worth for the existence in 
America of the parochial school is that it is indispensable for 
the holding of Catholic children in the faith. It is not a paro- 
chial school education for the children but a godly training 
in the home that Catholic parents should be concerned about, 
and also a clean clergy to minister at the altar, the confessional 
and other sacred places. 

Let me ask the aged Catholic parents, is it not true that 
you saw better priests and stronger faith years ago when there 
were no parochial schools and when religious instruction in 
the home was insisted upon? I believe your answer will be, 
yes. Many intelligent Catholic parents who have raised large 
families have assured me that this agrees with their obser- 
vation and experience. 

Leo XIII. once wrote : " The minds of children are most 
influenced by the training they receive at home." Catholic 
people, are you not losing sight of this great truth? Is it not 
the tendency of the parochial school to create in your minds 
the thought that it relieves you as parents of the sacred duty 
of training your children for God and society at home? I am 
confident that there are Catholic parents who are making 
the awful mistake of entertaining this false notion. 

The Catholic Church in America needs for the holding 
of her children to the faith, not the parochial school but priests 
and prelates who are men of God, pure in heart, clean in 
speech, Christlike in action, and patriotic in conduct. Such 
priests will keep the children faithful till death. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL AND THE LOSS OF THIRTY 
MILLION CATHOLICS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



I assert that the parochial school has been a most potent 
factor in causing the loss of thirty millions of communicants 
which the Catholic Church has o sustained in America. I have 
reliable Catholic statistics which show that the Catholic Church 
should now number over forty millions in this country, (ex- 
clusive of the Philippine Islands and Porto Rico), while ac- 
cording to the Catholic Directory for 1904 it has but 11,887,- 

3I7- 

I am indebted to an American Catholic gentleman of the 
highest literary ability, who has an international reputation, 
and is held in great honor by the Church, for the following 
statistical argument: 

The Catholic Directory of 1902 gives the total of the 
Catholic community in the United States as 10,976,757. The 
same authority states the same total, in 1890, as 8,301,367 souls, 
an apparent increase during twelve years, of 2,675,390. Un- 
der ordinary circumstances this would indicate a healthy prog- 
ress. The increment for twelve years of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church in the United States is greater than the total 
membership of many important and flourishing sects. The 
unthinking Roman Catholic lulls himself in the contempla- 
tion of this pleasant prospect, and sees his Church marching 
under stalwart leadership to the conversion of the whole peo- 
ple. 

There is another side. During the period from 1890 to 
1902, according to available statistics, the immigration from 
strictly Catholic countries was 2,482,284 persons. The coun- 
tries from which this immigration originated are Austria, Bel- 
giiAn, France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Spain and 



LOSS OF THIRTY MILLIONS. 323 

Ireland. An estimate of the German immigration of Roman 
Catholic Faith has been included, but no account is taken in 
the figures quoted above of the great Catholic immigration 
from Russian Poland, nor of French Canadians. All statis- 
ticians will admit that the exclusion of the factors mentioned 
will more than compensate for any excessive statement in- 
volved in the inclusion of the total immigration from the 
countries named as Roman Catholic. It must also be noted that 
the figures quoted from the Catholic Directory are complete 
up to and including the early months of 1902, while the im- 
migration statistics have not been brought down further than 
June 30, 1 901. 

With this statement it will, therefore, be pertinent to restate 
the facts in the form of a table so that the situation may be 
seen at a glance : 

10,976,757 Catholic population 1902 
8,301,367 " " 1890 



2,675,390 Increment of Catholic Population in 12 years. 
2,482,284 Immigration from strictly Catholic countries 
during same period. 

193,106 Apparent increment by births, conversions, etc., 
during same period. 

193,106 divided by twelve years give 16,092 and a fraction 
as the annual natural increment of the Roman Catholic 
Church in the United States during that same period. 

This plain and straightforward statement of the situation 
is startling. It shows that the Catholic Church in the United 
States is nourished by an influx of new blood sufficient to 
create a strong factor in the body politic. An element of pe- 
culiar force in estimating the influence of this steady increment 
is that the great majority of the persons who come to the 
United States marry and raise large families. It is a matter 
of common repute that the average number of a Roman Cath- 
olic family is greater than among other classes of the general 
population. Why, then, is it that the Catholic Church is 
shrinking? 

It is frequently suggested by Catholic ecclesiastics that 
the figures given in the Catholic Directory are not accurate. 
They should be. The statistics are made up from the re- 
ports of the various pastors. It is not probable that any pas- 



324 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

tor would deliberately understate the number of his flock. 
The figures given in the Catholic Directory may be accepted 
as a fair total. 

Without further argument it may be assumed that in- 
stead of holding its own and making inroads by conversion 
into the membership of Protestant sects the Roman Catholic 
Church in the United States is losing ground. The cold fig- 
ures themselves are so eloquent that it needs no elaboration. 
Roman Catholic statisticians who have made a study of the 
question assert that the membership of the Catholic Church 
in the United States should be 40,000,000. On the face of 
affairs, therefore, some 30,000,000 have been sloughed away 
from the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. The 
Jews and the Protestants can account for their membership, 
and they have had a more or less steady acquisition of mem- 
bership. 

The loss from Roman Catholicity has gone to swell the 
ranks of the atheists, the agnostics, the careless and the god- 
less generally. 

I now quote from the report of the convention of the 
American Federation of Catholic Societies which was held 
in Detroit, Michigan, in August, 1904, which appeared in the 
fourth column of the fifth page of The Detroit Evening News, 
as follows : 

Bishop McFaul, of Trenton, N. J., followed with an ad- 
dress on Catholic federation. He said the Catholic church 
ought to number 40,000,000 instead of only 12,000,000. Sta- 
tistics show, he said, that with emigrants and all 40,000,000 
Catholics have entered the country, but through lack of organ- 
ization they have dropped away from the church. 

This admission of Bishop McFaul suggests three ques- 
tions : 

1. How many of the "twelve millions" are entirely out- 
side the pale of the Church at heart and in practice ? 

2. How many of the "twelve millions" are but nominal 
Catholics ? 

3. How many of the " twelve millions " are Roman Cath- 
olics in the strict sense? 



LOSS OF THIRTY MILLIONS. 325 

I venture the following answers. To the first question 
about two millions; to the second question about four millions; 
and to the third question less than six millions. 

In this connection I quote the following from The Cath- 
olic Mirror, (the official organ of Cardinal Gibbons), issue 
of September 17, 1904, p. 7 : 

Bishop McFaul (in his address to the Federation of Cath- 
olic Societies) referred to another matter of serious impor- 
tance when he said that " if all the descendants of our Cath- 
olic forefathers had remained true to their faith there would 
be more than 40,000,000 Catholics in the United States to-day, 
instead of 15,000,000." 

This is a higher estimate of our Roman Catholic popu- 
lation than is warranted by official statistics, but it may not 
be excessive! However that may be, the immigration from 
Roman Catholic countries alone since the foundation of the 
republic must have been as many, and very much more if their 
children born in this country are included. A great part of 
these foreign Catholics and their descendants must have fallen 
away from the faith, and the Bishop's estimate that if they 
had all remained loyal our present Catholic population would 
be 40,000,000 is moderate. 

Placing the Blame. 

The Parochial School Board of Education, superintend- 
ents, principals and teachers, are largely responsible before 
God for the loss of these thirty million Catholics. The paro- 
chial school has bred and is breeding apostasy. No other re- 
sult could happen in this land. This is America in the light 
of the twentieth century and not in the darkness of medie- 
valism. This is America under the sovereignty of the peo- 
ple, with equality before the law, a free conscience, a free 
press, a free school and free speech. This is America whose 
very genius compels observation, investigation, reflection and 
action, and relates them to the highest ideals the world has 
ever known. 

Bigotry is blasphemy, hypocrisy is sacrilege, and un- Amer- 
icanism is the unpardonable sin in the temple of American 
ideals. 



3^6 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Any church in America whose priests are bigoted, hypo- 
critical and un-American will not only fail to win adherents 
from the ranks of the outsiders, but she will inevitably lose her 
own people. In no part of her economy will disaster more 
certainly overtake her than in that which has to do with the 
training of her young. The children's eyes may be blinded 
with deception for a time, but there comes sight at last ; and 
then every day of past blindness will be an accentuation of the 
resultant disappointment, pain, and loathing. 

Have the Catholic children in the parochial school seen 
bigotry, hypocrisy and un- Americanism ? I say that this ques- 
tion finds an affirmative answer in the appalling loss of thirty 
millions of members to the Catholic Church in America. 

In The Catholic Citizen, published at Milwaukee, Wis- 
consin, in its issue of December 21, 1901, appears an article 
headed " Convent Education — letter from a Chaplain," in de- 
fence of the convent school. I quote from this article as fol- 
lows : 

What, then, would seem to be the reason for the falling 
away in faith of some convent-bred girls, if such be the case? 
To our mind, the causes, which might be many, may be re- 
duced to these: 1st, the lack of virility in the faith taught; 
2nd, the amount. Doubtless only too often the kind of faith 
served up is a species of spiritual sweet-meat in the shape of 
legendary lore, dubious private revelations,, spurious miracles, 
all of which become identified with real faith. As a conse-' 
quence, the girl, on leaving school, perceiving that much of 
this is utter idiocy, might very easily lose a firm grip on faith 
simply because of its previous identification with legend. Sec- 
ondly, the amount ; that is, there might be a disposition on part 
of certain religious to cram too much down their pupils in 
the over-doing of devotions, sodalities, etc., etc. As a result, 
the pupil, when school days are over, might, by force of re- 
bound, fall into indifference even in essential spiritual duties. 
They have been bred as a religious; not having a vocation 'for 
such a life, they must go to the other extreme, because unpre- 
pared for the life they must lead in the world. 



LOSS OF THIRTY MILLIONS. 327 

If the instruction described by this Chaplain causes con- 
vent-bred girls to fall away from the faith, how much more 
must the conditions I have described drive parochial school 
children out of the Church? 

Leo XIII. , in reviewing his pontificate, said : " Our age ex- 
acts lofty ideals, generous designs, and the exact observance of 
the laws." (The Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII., p 579). 
These words are peculiarly true of the exactions of the Ameri- 
can people. There is something in the free atmosphere of Ameri- 
ca that makes the people keen to scent hypocrisy. Now, what 
has been the situation broadcast through many years ? Simply 
this : American Catholics have heard at Mass precepts falling 
from the lips of their priests, and after Mass, often on the same 
Sunday or Holy Day, they have seen those priests in a beastly 
state of intoxication, and they have found them indulging in 
pleasures and occupations at total variance with their sacred 
calling. The scandalized Catholics have reflected upon the 
facts put before them ; on the one hand they have had the 
priest and the Eucharist, on the other hand the same priest 
and worldliness, and, sad to relate, they have reasoned that if 
the Real Presence of the Son of God could not keep the priest 
pure there must be something amiss with the doctrine. They 
have heard or read the words of St. Cyril, or similar words, 
" Christ abiding in us lulls to sleep the law of the flesh which 
rages in our members," and they have seen with astonishment 
and sadness, and then disgust and disbelief, that the contrary 
was true. To better put before my readers the awful incentive 
to atheism which clerical misconduct engenders, I state now, 
in the words of Leo XIII. , what the Eucharist is supposed to 
do for the Catholic priest : 

The Eucharist, according to the testimony of the 
Holy Fathers, should be regarded as in a manner a con- 
tinuation and extension of the Incarnation. For in 
and by it the substance of the Incarnate Word is united 
with individual men, and the supreme Sacrifice ofTered on 
Calvary is in a wondrous manner renewed, as was signified 



328 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

beforehand by Malachy in the words : In every place there 
is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a pure oblation. 
And this miracle, itself the very greatest of its kind, is 
accompanied by innumerable other miracles ; for here all the 
laws of nature are suspended ; the whole substance of the bread 
and wine are changed into the body and the blood ; the species 
of bread and wine are sustained by the divine power without 
the support of any underlying substance ; the body of Christ 
is present in many places at the same time, that is to say, where- 
ever the Sacrament is consecrated. . . But that decay of faith 
in divine things of which we have spoken is the effect not only 
of pride, but also of moral corruption. For if it is true that 
a strict morality improves the quickness of man's intellectual 
powers, and if on the other hand, as the maxims of pagan 
philosophy and the admonitions of divine wisdom combine to 
teach us, the keenness of the mind is blunted by bodily pleas- 
ures, how much more, in the region of revealed truths, do these 
same pleasures obscure the light of faith, or even, by the just 
judgment of God, entirely extinguish it. For these pleasures, 
at the present day, an insatiable appetite rages, infecting all 
classes as with an infectious disease, even from tender years. 
Yet even for so terrible an evil there is a remedy close at hand 
in the divine Eucharist. For in the first place it puts a check on 
lust by increasing charity, according to the words of St. Augus- 
tine, who says speaking of charity : " As it grows, lust diminish- 
es ; when it reaches perfection, lust is no more." Moreover the 
most chaste flesh of Jesus keeps down the rebellion of our flesh, 
as St. Cyril of Alexandria taught, " For Christ abiding in us 
lulls to sleep the law of the flesh which rages in our members." 
Then, too, the special and most pleasant fruit of the Eucharist 
is that which is signified in the words of the prophet : What 
is the good thing of Him, that is, of Christ, and what is His 
beautiful thing, but the corn of the elect and the wine that 
engendereth virgins, producing, in other words, that flower 
and fruitage of a strong and constant purpose of virginity 
which, even in an age enervated by luxury, is daily multiplied 
and spread abroad in the Catholic Church, with those advan- 
tages to religion and to human society, wherever it is found, 
which are plain to see. (The Great Encyclical Letters of Leo 
XIIL, pp. 524-525.) 

At the Eucharistic Congress held in New York City in 
the latter part of September, 1904, a " tender, pleading sermon " 



LOSS OF THIRTY MILLIONS. 329 

was delivered by the Right Rev. Charles H. Colton, Bishop 
of Buffalo, N. Y., his subject being the Holy Communion. 
' With expressive eloquence he pictured the spiritual benefits 
that were the portion of those devoted to this fundamental dog- 
ma of the Church, the real presence of the living God on the 
altar." He said in part: 

And as holy communion is the help we need to 
resist temptation, even our Lord Himself has said un- 
less we eat of His body and drink His blood we shall not have 
life in us, so Holy Church makes it obligatory on the faithful 
to receive holy communion at least once a year — and exhorts 
them knowing its wonderful effects to receive frequently. Wit- 
ness her clergy, nourished with the precious body and blood 
of Christ in the daily mass : witness her religious receiving 
almost daily, and behold the thousands even in the world who 
follow the same holy practice, and witness the results — men 
and women midst all this world's dangers, compelled to experi- 
ence its temptations — the temptations from Satan and the cor- 
ruption of fallen nature — yet leading holy and spotless lives ; 
for holy communion is indeed for them the bread of the strong, 
the bread of angels, the bread of life, and the wine that maketh 
virgins. — The Catholic Union and Times, Buffalo, N. Y ., 
October 6, 1904, p. 1. 

Now, over against these words of the late Pontiff, and 
the deliverance of Bishop Colton, put priestly drunkenness, 
grafting and immorality! What must be the effect? I hold 
that it drives Catholic people away from their Church. 

Catholic people, who leave the Church, do not join other 
sects — they swell the ranks of the atheists. I assert again 
that an unpriestly priesthood is to blame for the appalling loss 
of Catholic communicants in the United States of America. 

In this connection I quote from the utterances of the x\n- 
gelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, as follows: 

Hypocrisy would seem to be the worst of all sins. For, 
Our Lord inveighed more forcibly against hypocrites, than 
against any other class of sinners. St. Gregory says (in Pas- 
toral), " None do more harm in the Church, than sinners who 



33° THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

have a reputation for, or appearance of, sanctity." (An Apol- 
ogy for the Religious Orders, by St. Thomas Aquinas, p. 253.) 

The Holy Father is greatly concerned over the general 
falling away from the Catholic Church, as will be seen by the 
following excerpt from His first Encyclical as the same ap- 
peared in The New York Freeman's Journal and Catholic 
Register of October 17, 1903. 

Society's Malignant Disease — Apostasy From God. 

Then again, to omit other motives, we were terrified 
beyond all else by the disastrous state of human society to-day. 
For who can fail to see that society is now, more than in any 
past age, suffering from a terrible and deep-rooted malady 
which, developing every day and eating into its inmost being, 
is dragging it to destruction? You understand, venerable 
brothers, what this disease is — apostasy from God, than which 
in truth nothing is more allied with ruin, according to the word 
of the prophet : " For behold they that go far from Thee shall 
perish" (1) — (1, Ps. lxxii., 17). We saw, therefore, that, 
in virtue of the ministry of the Pontificate which was to be 
intrusted to us, we must hasten to find a remedy for this 
great evil, considering as addressed to us that divine command : 
' Lo, I have set thee this day over the nations and over king- 
doms, to root up, and to pull down, and to waste, and to de- 
stroy, and to build, and to plant." (2) — 2, Jerem. 1., 10). 
But, cognizant of our weakness we recoiled in terror from a 
task as urgent as it is arduous. • 

Since, however, it has been pleasing to the Divine Will 
to raise our lowliness to such sublimity of power, we take 
courage in Him Who strengthens us, and, setting ourself to 
work, relying on the power of God, we proclaim that we have 
no other programme in the Supreme Pontificate but that " of 
restoring all things in Christ," (3) — (3, Ephes. i., 10) so that 
"Christ may be all and in all" (4) — (4. Coloss. iii., 2). 

Some will certainly be found who, measuring divine things 
by human standards, will seek to discover secret aims of ours, 
distorting them to an earthly scope and to partisan designs. 
To eliminate all vain delusion for such we say to them with 
emphasis that we do not wish to be, and with the divine as- 
sistance never shall be, aught before human society but the 



LOSS OF THIRTY MILLIONS. 331 

minister of God, of whose authority we are the depositary. 
The interests of God shall be our interests, and for these we 
are resolved to spend all our strength and our very life. Hence 
should anyone ask us for a symbol as the expression of our will, 
we will give this and no other : " To renew all things in Christ." 

The War on God. 

In undertaking this glorious task we are greatly quickened 
by the certainty that we shall have all of you, venerable brothers, 
as generous co-operators. Did we doubt it we should have to 
regard you, unjustly, as either unconscious or heedless of that 
sacrilegious war which is now, almost everywhere, stirred up 
and fomented against God. For in truth " the nations have 
raged and the peoples imagined vain things " (5) — (5, Ps. ii., 
1) against their Creator, so frequent is the cry of the enemies 
of God: "Depart from us" (6) — (6, Job xxi., 14). And as 
might be expected we find extinguished among the majority 
of men all respect for the Eternal God, and no regard paid 
in the manifestations of public and private life to the Supreme 
Will — nay, every effort and every artifice is used to destroy 
utterly the memory and the knowledge of God. . . 

There are not lacking among the clergy those who adapt 
themselves- according to their bent to works of more apparent 
than real solidity — but not so numerous, perhaps, are those 
who, after the example of Christ, take to themselves the words 
of the prophet : " The spirit of the Lord hath anointed me, 
hath sent me to evangelize the poor, to announce freedom to 
the captive and sight to the blind " (4) — (4, Luke iv., 18, 19). 
Yet who can fail to see, venerable brothers, that while men are 
led by reason and liberty, the principal way to restore the em- 
pire of God in their souls is religious instruction ? How many 
there are who mimic Christ and abhor the Church and the Gos- 
pel more through ignorance than through badness of mind, 
of whom it may well be said : " They blaspheme all that they do 
not know " (5) — (5, Jud. ii., 10). This is found to be the case 
not only among the people at large and among the lowest 
classes, who are thus easily led astray, but even among the more 
cultivated and among those endowed, moreover, with education 
beyond the common. The result is for a great many the loss 
of the faith. For it is not true that the progress of knowl- 
edge extinguishes the faith — rather it is ignorance, and the 
more ignorance prevails the greater is the havoc wrought by 



J2 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL, 

incredulity. And this is why Christ commanded the Apostles : 
" Go teach all nations" (6) — (6, Matth. xxviii., 19). 

I humbly trust that this book will help His Holiness to 
understand how the parochial school is contributing to the sad 
apostasy in America. 

It is my humble and profound conviction, the result of 
many months patient and careful reading of historical works 
of Catholic writers, that the great apostasy in the sixteenth 
century was chiefly brought about by clerical drunkenness, 
grafting and immorality — similar to that which prevails in 
America to-day. I cite in this connection Catholic authorities : 

The second work (of St. Ignatius De Loyola) . . was the 
foundation of the Germanic College. . . The first idea of such 
an institution occurred to Cardinal Morone, who, having resided 
for many years in Germany as Nuncio, had seen the necessi- 
tous condition of that country, abandoned to the heresy of 
Luther, chiefly through the ignorance and immorality of the 
clergy. (History of St. Ignatius De Loyola, Founder of the 
Jesuits, by Father Daniel Bartoli, A Jesuit, Vol. 2, p. 369.) 

In a report of the year 1430 we read : " Greed reigns su- 
preme in the Roman Court, and day by day finds new devices 
and artifices for extorting money from Germany, under pretext 
of ecclesiastical fees. Hence much outcry, complaining and 
heartburnings among scholars and courtiers ; also many 
questions in regard to the Papacy will arise, or else obedience 
will ultimately be entirely renounced, to escape from these 
outrageous exactions of the Italians ; and the latter course 
would be, as I perceive, acceptable to many countries." It 
is possible that certain statements in these reports are to be 
rejected or considered as exaggerated, yet, on the whole, the 
picture they present must be a true one, for Swiss, Poles, and 
even Italians of that day have all borne similar testimony. 
(Dr. Pastor's History of the Popes, Vol. I. p. 241.) 

In 1584 he (St. Francis De Sales, one of the founders 
of the Order of the Visitation) went to the university of Padua 
to study canon and civil law, and completed his course in 
1 59 1 with great distinction. While there he put himself under 
the spiritual direction of Father Possevin, a Jesuit, who, be- 



LOSS OF THIRTY MILLIONS, 333 

ing truly a man of God, spoke to the young student of the 
wounds of the Church, which, he said, were in all cases trace- 
able to the corruption of the clergy. (Dr. Alzog's Manual 
of Universal Church History, Vol. III., p. 393.) 

It has been frequently and justly remarked that the de- 
generacy of the clergy, and their neglect to instruct the people 
in their religious duties, thus bringing upon the latter innum- 
erable corporal and spiritual evils, had prepared the way for the 
introduction of Protestantism. (Dr. Alzog's Manual of Uni- 
versal Church History, Vol. III., p. 386.) 

Present conditions in the American hierarchy are similar 
to those which prevailed at the opening of the sixteenth century. 
Priestly rottenness begat then a schism in Church polity and 
dogma : priestly rottenness is now producing a schism, on one 
side of which stands the Church and on the other atheism. 

Priestly rottenness was cloaked in the time of the great 
apostasy, and the result was Protestantism: priestly rotten- 
ness is being cloaked in our times and the result is atheism.. 
Church dignitaries attempted, using the forceful figure of 
" the strong Archbishop," to " ram it down the throats of the 
people that the priests were all right." They failed in the 
sixteenth century ; they are failing now ; and one of the strong- 
est proofs of this to my mind is the, loss to the Church in 
America of thirty million adherents. 



CHAPTER X. 



APAISM. 



Historical Statement. 

Apaism is a term which has been coined to designate 
organized opposition in America to Catholicism. Primarily 
it refers to the American Protective Association, the initials 
of which name enter into it. 

From time to time there have been fierce antagonisms 
between Catholics and non-Catholics in the United States. 
During and immediately following the War of the Revolution 
the Catholic part of the population was infinitesimal, and was 
subjected to various annoying restrictions by the majority. 
But these hindrances were soon removed, and the Catholics 
were invested with the liberties which fell to the lot of American 
citizens. In 1838 steam navigation across the Atlantic was es- 
tablished, and it gave a tremendous impetus to emigration 
from the old world to the new. This emigration had pre- 
viously been going on in a constantly increasing ratio ; but the 
steamship made the Catholic Church in America grow by leaps 
and bounds, and its members entered actively into politics and 
sought and obtained various civic positions. In 1853 a new 
political party was formed to check the influence of these immi- 
grants. It adopted as its motto " America for the Americans." 
The common name of its members was " Know-Nothings "' 
because they invariably answered when questioned by out- 
siders as to their aims and actions, that they knew nothing. 
No applicant for membership could be admitted unless he and 
his father were native born Americans. It is reported that 
the salutation of its members was the odd question, ' Have 



apaism. 335 

you seen Sam?" This party was openly and notoriously hos- 
tile to Catholics, and it increased rapidly in membership. It 
was a secret oath-bound organization, and nothing was told 
to its members of its name, nature and objects until they 
reached its higher degrees. It accepted the name of the 
American Party. It opposed the easy naturalization of for- 
eigners and sought to elect native-born citizens to office. Se- 
cret conventions of delegates from the various lodges made the 
nominations, and members who refused to vote for the nomi- 
nees were expelled. It decided many elections at first by en- 
dorsing the nominations of one or other of the two great 
parties. It became for a time a national party, being adopted 
by many of the Southern Whigs after the passage of the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska Bill. In 1855 ^ carried nine of the State 
elections, and it nominated Presidential candidates in 1856. 
At this time the issues between the North and the South over 
slavery and State Rights became paramount, and the members 
of the Know-Nothing party were absorbed by the great po- 
litical parties which were destined to see those questions set- 
tled by the arbitrament of the sword. In 1893-4 the American 
Protective Association was formed, and it has been styled the 
successor of the Know-Nothing party. This association is 
familiarly known to Catholics as 'the A. P. A." (See Lar- 
ned's History for Ready Reference and Topical Reading, Vol. 
V, p. 3391 ; History of United States by Bryant and Gay, Vol. 
IV, p. 416 ; and Ellis' History of United States, Vol. Ill, pp. 

838, 839.) 

The American Protective Association adopted the follow- 
ing principles at the time of its organization : 

1. Nationality is not a bar to membership in this order. 
No man is asked where he was born. 

2. We interfere with no man's partisan politics. 

3. We attack no man's religion so long as he does not 
attempt to make his religion an element of political power. 

4. We unite to protect our country and its free institutions 
against the secret, intolerant, and aggressive frauds that are 



33^ THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

persistently being set forth by a certain religio-political organ- 
ization to control the government of the United States and 
destroy our blood-bought civil and religious liberty. 

5. We are in favor of preserving constitutional liberty and 
maintaining the government of the United States. 

6. We regard all religio-political organizations as enemies 
of civil and religious liberty. . 

7. It is in our opinion unwise and unsafe to appoint or elect 
to civil, political, or military office in this country, men who owe 
supreme allegiance to any foreign king, potentate, or ecclesi- 
astical power. 

8. We are in favor of maintaining the principles of one 
general unsectarian free school organization and will oppose 
all attempts to supplant it by any sectarian institution. 

9. We are opposed to all attempts, local or national, to 
use public funds for any sectarian purpose. 

10. We are in favor of laws taxing all church property 
except the church edifice. 

11. We are in favor of opening all private and parochial 
schools, convents, and monasteries to public and official in- 
spection. 

12. We are in favor of changing our immigration law in 
such manner that it will protect our citizen laborers from the 
evil influence of cheap, pauper, and criminal labor, which 
through the instrumentality of European propagandist so- 
cieties and the subtle influence of priests, are rapidly supplant- 
ing our free and American citizens in every line of industry. 

13. We believe there should be an educational qualifi- 
cation to the elective franchise. 

14. We are in favor of putting into office honest and true 
patriots who are best qualified to fill the position, regardless 
of political principles. — Official Declaration of Principles of 
the American Protective Association as adopted at the meet- 
ing of the State Council of Illinois, which convened at Bloom- 
ington, January 23, 1894. 

The American Protective Association is said to have gained 
a considerable following in many of the States of America. 
I have been unable to learn the extent of its actual member- 
ship, but I am led to believe, from the information which has 
reached me, that its real strength lies in the sympathy which 



apaism. 337 

the great masses of the American people feel with it in its 
opposition to ecclesiastical political activity for the aggran- 
dizement of the Church and the destruction of the American 
public school. 

A Catholic Cannot Become President of the 
United States. 

It is lamentable that such antagonisms should have arisen 
between Catholic and non-Catholic American citizens. Ameri- 
can history shows how deeply seated they have been in the past, 
and observation teaches that they are still alive. Catholics 
are not trusted by their non-Catholic fellow-citizens in America. 
Does any one deny this assertion ? Its proof is sufficiently dis- 
closed when attention is paid to the Chief Magistracy of this 
Nation. Non-Catholic Americans will not vote for a Catholic 
to be the President or Vice-President of the United States. 

This political boycott of Catholic Presidential timber is 
recognized by Catholics. From The Catholic Union and Times 
of Buffalo, New York, of June 9th, 1904, third column of the 
first page, I quote as follows : 

It is a well-known fact that to be a Catholic, or to be con- 
nected by ties of consanguinity with members of the Catholic 
Church, seemingly keeps one from the Presidential chair, no 
matter how deserving the candidate may be. 

At the World's Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 1893, 
M. T. Elder, a prominent Catholic of New Orleans, Louisiana, 
said to the Catholic Congress : 

Consider the Presidency, for instance. Have we ever 
had a Catholic President ? Ever come near having one ? Ever 
even had a Catholic candidate ? Ever likely to have one ? O, 
never! (Barrows' World's Parliament of Religions, Vol. II., 
p. 1414.) 

The Pilot, a Catholic paper, published at Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, in its issue of June 25, 1904, page 4, contained the 
following : 



33^ THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

The prejudice with the force of a law, as Daniel 
Doherty phrased it, which bars out any and every Catholic from 
the nomination for President of the United States, includes also 
any and every man who has or is suspected of having- a Catholic 
relative by blood or marriage. Some of the Pilot's readers 
remember how bitterly that prejudice was invoked against 
Horace Greeley because of the known Catholicity of his 
daughter, and against General Hancock because of the sup- 
posed Catholicity of his wife, — though it turned out that Mrs. 
Hancock was simply a devout member of the " high Church ' 
element among the Protestant Episcopalians. 

It does not speak well for the Catholic Church in America 
to be barred from the realization of the laudable aspiration to 
have a man of its faith entrusted with the supreme direction 
of the affairs of our Nation. Americans have had too many les- 
sons in the possibility of a Vice-President becoming President, 
through the natural or violent death of the Chief Magistrate, 
to favor the election of a Catholic to the Vice-Presidency. 

Any political party in America which nominates a 
Catholic for the Presidency or Vice-Presidency is doomed, 
by that act, to overwhelming defeat. This ban upon Catholics 
is due to the hostility of their ecclesiastics toward American 
principles. The Catholic clergy have locked the door of the 
White House against the Catholic layman. That locked door 
conclusively shows the existence of a deep antagonism toward 
the Catholics by the non-Catholics in America. 

History of the Catholic Church in America. 

The Catholic people in America were very thankful for 
the benefits of the Declaration of Independence and the Con- 
stitution. The illustrious American historian, Mr. Bancroft, 
says that Catholics were eligible to office at first in only eight 
or nine of the early states ; then he tells of the removal of the 
disability ; and then he says : 

The separation of the church and the state by the estab- 
lishment of religious equality was followed by the wonderful 



apaism. 339 

result that it was approved of everywhere, always, and by 
all... The Roman Catholic eagerly accepted in Amer- 
ica his place as an equal with Protestants, and found content- 
ment and hope in his new relations. — (History of the United 
States, by George Bancroft, Vol. V., p. 123.) 

Mr. M. H. Carroll (who was in charge of the division of 
churches, Eleventh Census), in his book entitled, "The Re- 
ligious Forces of the United States ' (American Church His- 
tory Series, Scribner, N. Y., 1893, Vol. I., introduction, p. 
lviii), speaking of the Roman Catholic Church in America in 
the colonial days, says : 

There were in 1784 hardly 30,000 Catholics, two-thirds 
of whom were in Maryland and Pennsylvania, the rest being 
widely scattered. 

When the Declaration of Independence was promulgated 
the population of the colonies was about two and one-half mil- 
lion souls. (See tables in Bancroft's History U. S., Vol. II., 
p. 390). There were thirty thousand Catholics, and about 
two million non-Catholic white people. 

The following epitome of the progress of the Catholic 
Church in America J take from an address in The Notre Dame 
Scholastic, (Vol. XXXVII, No. 36, Commencement 1904), en- 
titled, " Some Thoughts for American Catholics," by Hon. 
Chas. A. Bonaparte: 

On November 6, 1789, a Bull of Pope Pius VI. founded the 
American hierarchy. At that date the Catholic population of 
the United States was estimated, probably too liberally, at 
forty thousand, or about the one-hundredth part of our entire 
people. There were in all some thirty priests ; hardly so many 
chapels ; no edifice which could, with any propriety of language, 
be called a church ; not one asylum or hospital or other benevo- 
lent institution, and but a single school or seat of learning of 
any class, — Georgetown College then just founded. When, 
one hundred years later, the American Catholic Congress met 
at Baltimore its members represented a Catholic population 
of probably more than eight millions, constituting between 



34° THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

one-eighth and one-seventh of the whole nation. The Church 
was ruled by thirteen archbishops and seventy-one bishops ; 
commanded the services of over eight thousand priests ; pos- 
sessed some ten thousand five hundred places of public worship, 
five hundred and twenty hospitals and asylums, twenty-seven 
seminaries for the education of the clergy exclusively, six hun- 
dred and fifty colleges and academies, and, most significant 
of all, for those who hope or fear much from " the corroding 
action " of " free public education under Protestant auspices, ,, 
more than thirty-one hundred parish schools, with, at a low 
estimate, three-quarters of a million of pupils. 

In the fifteen years since that Congress was held the 
Church's progress has been even more rapid. Without speak- 
ing of Porto Rico or the Philippines, it is safe to say that there 
are now in the American Union several times as many Catholic 
bishops as there were priests when our Constitution was adopt- 
ed ; fully as many priests as there were then adult male lay- 
men- more churches than there were Catholic families in the 
thirteen States ; convents and monasteries, schools and colleges, 
asylums and hospitals, of which the combined means of the en- 
tire Catholic population of those days could not have built a 
tenth. It is true that since the adoption of our Constitution 
the growth of this country has been marvelous, but the growth 
of the Catholic Church in this country has been far more mar- 
velous ; while the number of American citizens has increased 
perhaps twentyfold, the number of American Catholics has 
increased much more than three-hundredfold. . . Surely the 
mustard seed planted on these shores a hundred and fifteen 
years ago fell on no ungrateful soil ; of this fact no better 
proof can be given or reasonably asked than Time has fur- 
nished in the stately tree with its deep roots and widespread- 
ing branches which has grown from that seed. 

The Holy See has not been blind to the progress of the 
Catholic Church in America under the conditions which have 
prevailed concerning the separation of State and Church. I 
quote from the Encyclical of Leo XIII. , entitled " Congratu- 
lations to the American Hierarchy," addressed to Cardinal 
Gibbons and the American bishops, and dated April 15, 1902: 

And Our daily experience obliges Us to confess that We 
have found your people, through your influence, endowed with 



APAISM. 341 

perfect docility of mind and alacrity of disposition. There- 
fore, while the changes and tendency of nearly all the nations 
which were Catholic for many centuries give cause for sorrow, 
the state of your churches,- in their flourishing youthfulness, 
cheers Our heart and fills it with delight. True, you are 
shown no special favor by the law of the land, but on the other 
hand your lawgivers are certainly entitled to praise for the 
fact that they do nothing to restrain you in your just liberty. 
You must, therefore, and with you the Catholic host behind, 
make strenuous use of the favorable time for action which is 
now at your disposal by spreading abroad as far as possible 
the light of truth against the errors and absurd imaginings 
of the sects that are springing up. (The Great Encyclical Let- 
ters of Leo XIIL, pp. 514-515.) 

Catholic blood has been poured out in behalf of this 
glorious Republic. In the dark days of the Revolution the 
Catholic people, who were but a handful, were loyal to the 
ideals of independence ; on the hard-fought battle fields of 
liberty they stood shoulder to shoulder with their fellow 
countrymen of varying creeds ; and their commingled blood 
is typified in the fadeless red of Old Glory. In the war with 
England in 181 2 the Catholic citizens were loyal and self-sac- 
rificing. In the war with Mexico they splendidly championed 
their country's cause. In the titanic Civil War, when brother 
was arrayed against brother, the Catholic people were divided, 
as were all other sectaries, but the Catholics of the North- 
land went to the front in multitudes to prevent the tearing of a 
single star from their country's flag. If I read American his- 
tory understandingly, out of Gettysburg and Vicksburg came 
the final, though delayed, success of the Union arms. The 
former battle was won under General Meade, a Catholic; the 
latter under General Grant, a Protestant. In the late war with 
Spain the American victories on land and sea were achieved by 
military and naval forces which were largely composed of loyal 
Catholic citizens. The heroism of the Catholics at the front 
has been but the expression of the general Catholic loyalty 
to American institutions. If Catholics and non-Catholic 



34 2 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Americans can camp together and march together and fight to- 
gether and die together in behalf of their Government, why 
should they not live together in perfect amity and mutual con- 
fidence in times of peace? 

There would be no friction in America between Catholics 
and non-Catholics if Catholic priests, prelates and princes of 
the church would not attack Americanisms, and if they would 
not attempt to persuade the Catholic people to pursue policies 
and to champion causes at variance with American principles 
and ideals. Let us consider some of the things which cause 

this lamentable Apaism. 

% 
The Parochial School the Chief Cause. 

The parochial school is now the chief source of irritation. 
The American people are wedded to the public school, and 
any assault upon it arouses their wrath. I take it for granted 
that I need not now dwell at length upon this phase of the sub- 
ject since I so fully discuss it in other chapters of this book. 

I have been asked many times- this question : " What is 
the likelihood of bloodshed during this public school con- 
troversy ? " My answer is that it depends solely upon the 
initiative of the enemies of the public school. If they take the 
ballot as their weapon they will perish by the ballot; if they 
take the sword they will perish by the sword. When the 
American people are forced to front an issue they face it with 
the ballot or the bullet, just as the exigency dictates. 

Americans will no more permit the disintegration of the 
American public school in the Twentieth Century than they did 
the dissolution of the American Union in the Nineteenth. 

Catholic clerical agitation, vituperation and un-American- 
ism will produce an overwhelming demand that the State alone 
shall educate American children. The State will awaken to 
the fact that it has duties to itself, and it will decree that the 
rising generations of its children shall receive such instruction 



apaism. 343 

and be surrounded by such influences as shall make them in- 
tensely American. 

Coupled with the demand for the annihilation of the pa- 
rochial school will be another for the exclusion of the Jesuits 
from America. The Jesuits are not strangers to expatriation. 
They have been banished from many countries, and they were 
suppressed by the Papacy. In America they have been given 
an asylum. They are not idle here. They are fostering and 
directing Catholic opposition to the American public school. 
They would better serve the interests of their Order and of 
their Church by holding aloof from any attack upon this re- 
vered institution of the land whose hospitable shores they were 
glad to reach. They will find out by a bitter experience that 
this Republic knows, too, how to avenge any outrage upon its 
hospitality. 

The Federation of Catholic Societies. 

Many of the Catholic societies in America have entered 
into a federation, and efforts are being made to induce the 
others to join it. Nothing more irritating to non-Catholics 
in America has ever happened than the publicity given to the 
Federation of Catholic Societies, and the efforts of certain 
Archbishops and Bishops to have it assume a hostile attitude 
toward the public school and other American ideals. 

It may be of interest to my readers to see how some lead- 
ing Catholics feel on this matter. The Catholic Citizen, pub- 
lished at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 2, 1904, has on its front 
page the following : 

CATHOLIC FEDERATION. 

Some Views Regarding It. Trend of Sentiment is " Be 
Careful." Danger In It. 

Herewith are given the views of a number of leading Cath- 
olics — in the business and professional world — on the much 
discussed question of Catholic Federation. As a reading will 



344 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

show, their trend of sentiment is against the Federation as 
an ill-advised movement. 

From the" views " given in this article I give the following 
excerpts : 

John T. Kelly. 

Your request for an expression of opinion from me as 
to the advisability of Catholic Federation comes to me too late 
to fully treat for this week's issue. I may say in brief, how- 
ever, that I am not convinced that it is a good move or that it 
is along the right lines. The only feature that I can see to 
warrant its consideration is the fact that a number of learned 
and earnest men advocate it and work persistently to establish 
it. There is in my judgment no field in which it can exercise 
any effective function outside of a political one. A Catholic 
political party or a Protestant political party or a Socialist 
political party has no place in this country. 

John Toohey. 

Without impugning the good intentions of those who may 
believe otherwise, I am utterly opposed to the taking of any 
steps in this country that will have a tendency to arraign the 
different denominations against each other in governmental 
affairs. I firmly believe that the confederation of all Catholic 
societies into one grand body as proposed, would be one of 
the gravest mistakes that the Catholics of this country ever 
made. It would be a step backwards. One that would do the 
Church more harm than good. It naturally would beget 
countersectarian political action. It is only natural to expect 
such a result. It would tend to breed ill-feeling between 
citizens who have a common interest in political affairs. Such 
an organization would resemble to my mind a standing army 
waiting for war — ready for action. An excellent irritant to 
arouse religious prejudice. 

Jo Jm F. Donovan. 

If the purpose of the Federation is as was outlined in the 
newspapers the day after the last meeting at St. Mary's school 
hall, I am absolutely opposed to it. I can see no reason for 
any organization of that kind in America. Catholics have no 



apaism. 345 

complaint to make as to their treatment by legislatures or by 
citizens generally. On the contrary, I believe that we are 
receiving all that we can decently expect or demand. We have 
the same benefit of the laws as our neighbors of other denom- 
inations ; the same rights are guaranteed to us under the 
Constitution as are guaranteed to our neighbors of other de- 
nominations and the courts arc always swift to enforce these 
rights. The day has gone by, if it ever existed in this country, 
when a clerical party was necessary. We stand upon the same 
footing as all loyal American citizens stand. We expect no 
less than others receive ; we have no right to demand more. 
It seems to me that the Federation so called is an egregious 
blunder and can do naught but harm to the Catholics of this 
country. It is uncalled for, unnecessary, unwise and un-Ameri- 
can. 

/. H. Kopmeier. 

I am opposed to the Catholic Federation movement and 
believe it is a serious mistake. While I know the motives and 
purposes of its organizers are praiseworthy and commendable, 
I am convinced that the Federation movement will stir up feel- 
ing and latent bigotry, defeat its own purposes, and injure 
Catholics individually and collectively. A Catholic movement 
of this nature will beget a counter movement which will do 
us irretrievable injury. Furthermore, I do not think the Fed- 
eration of Catholic societies is capable of accomplishment under 
the conditions existing in this country. 

C. M. Scanlan. 

The non-Catholics consider the Federation as of the same 
nature as the A. P. A's. In some respects it is similar, and 
in so far as it interferes in politics, attacks American institutions 
and abuses Catholics (including bishops and priests), it is 
doing the work of the A. P. A's. At the launching of the 
movement, Bishop McFaul advocated that it be a factor in 
politics, and from that time down to its last meeting it has been 
dabbling in politics. Its conventions uttered loud protests 
against phantom wrongs and passed resolutions that have 
served no other purpose than to record its blunders and bring 
reproach upon the Church. 



346 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

August Rebhan. 

I am opposed to the Catholic Federation. I think the 
movement ill advised, unnecessary and liable to work in- 
jury to the Church and Catholics individually. Some of its 
purposes, some of the alleged evils it proposes to remedy are 
political or semi-political in their nature. Its efforts in this 
direction will inevitably drag the Federation into politics. 
Once get- the united Catholic societies in the field of politics 
and the result will be a defeat of their very aims and a counter 
movement arousing all the latent prejudice in the country — 
a result, which we will live to deeply regret. 

I regret that .space forbids the insertion of the views of 
these gentlemen in full. They are representative Catholics as 
will be seen by the following taken from the close of the article 
in question : 

Of the above, Mr. John T. Kelly is state president of the 
A. O. H., Mr. C. M. Scanlan is president of Gesu branch, 
Catholic Knights of Wisconsin, Mr. August Rebhan, Grand 
Knight of Pere Marquette Council, Knights of Columbus. 
Messrs. John F. Kopmeier, John Toohey and John F. Donovan 
are prominent in Catholic social, business or professional circles. 

The fact is that priests and prelates hope to establish in 
the United States a Catholic party modeled after the Center 
party in the German Reichstag, and to make the Catholic so- 
cieties the nucleus of such a party. The need of a Catholic 
Center party in the United States has been a frequent editorial 
topic in a number of the German Catholic papers. They think 
they can work it out in this way: Set afoot a movement for a 
division of the school fund. That movement to mean anything 
must exert itself in securing pledges from candidates for the 
legislature. Neither Republican nor Democratic candidates 
will give such pledges. Therefore, if Catholics are in earnest 
they must put up candidates of their own. The evolution is 
easy and natural — they become a third party, a Catholic Center 
party in American politics. 



apaism. 347 

Priests and prelates have a practical scheme on foot to 
capture America. They are aiming to control the large 
American cities, into which the Catholic people are crowding. 
In these cities the Catholic voters are induced to join Catholic 
societies, and consequently are reachable for united political 
action, and they are more and more voting in line with the be- 
hests of their organization leaders. 

In this connection I quote from a speech of Archbishop 
Quigley, delivered May 4, 1903, at the Holy Name parish 
school Chicago : 

The Chicago Tribune, May 5, 1903. 

The people of the east do not know of the importance 
of Chicago in the west. The Catholics know that Chicago 
is one of the great Catholic centers of the world. In fifty 
years Chicago will be exclusively Catholic. The same may be 
said of greater New York and the chain of big cities stretch- 
ing across the continent to San Francisco. 

It has never forced itself on me — this conviction — as it 
has since I have been in Chicago. I am simply overcome by it. 
I am not telling you this to flatter you. I mean what I say. 
When I see what is going on I am more than pleased. Noth- 
ing can stand against the church. I'd like to see the politician 
who would try to rule against the Church in Chicago. His 
reign would be short indeed. 

I predict that if this course is pursued, and the American 
people awake to the fact that their cities are being controlled 
by Catholics as the result of united Catholic political activ- 
ities there will be a revolution in the United States. The same 
result would occur if the Mormons or Methodists or Baptists 
or any other sect wielded power in the same way. 

In this connection I quote the words of the Hon. John 
F. Finerty, (chief editor of The Chicago Citizen), %. distin- 
guished Catholic citizen of the United States. In an editorial 
entitled, " We must respect American Institutions," he said : 



34^ THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

The Chicago Citizen, December 26, 1903. 

In brief, then, we say to all whom it may concern: Let 
American institutions severely alone, and do not kindle the 
flames of a bigot hell in this grand country by seeking after 
the unattainable. Always bear in mind, that the vast majority 
of the American people, of all creeds, will stand by their coun- 
try, her constitution, her laws and her institutions. Any in- 
vasion of either, by any outside or inside force whatever, will 
mean — WAR] What man, what set of men, would be fatuous 
enough to bring such a curse upon the land ? 

The American people will never submit to be dominated 
by the hierarchy, or united laity, of any sect on earth. The 
denomination that favors and abets its own political ascendency 
in America thereby digs its own grave. 

Catholic people are deceived by the specious claims of 
fancied strength by means of Catholic organization. They 
should remember that non-Catholic Americans have a genius 
for organization, and that all they need is a sufficient motive. 
Let some mighty principle of our Government be seriously 
attacked by the Catholic citizenship and the non-Catholic 
people will rally to its defence with alacrity, tenacity and 
crushing power. The American people are intelligent. Their 
intelligence is filled full of latent organization with irre- 
sistible dormant power. Give that intelligence a rallying point 
and the latent will speedily turn into the patent and the dormant 
into the active. My perusal of the history of my adopted 
country has taught me these great truths. I wish the Catho- 
lic people would carefully read that history and ponder it well. 
Let the non-Catholic people of America be aroused by the 
Catholics upon the school question or any other Americanism 
and they will settle it. The Catholic people will not be so much 
as considered. 

Are Catholics the only citizens in this country who be- 
long to secret societies? If my information is correct there 
are many non-Catholic secret orders in America. I have a 



APAISM. 351 

they ask, what would be the natural results in Italy of such a 
recovery? They say that if the Temporal Power were re- 
stored, Italy would cease to be a great nation ; that her historic 
peninsula would be the home of two competitive peoples, one 
of which, by virtue of the spiritual and temporal claims of its 
ruler, would be constantly a source of jealousy to the other; 
that there would be produced in Italy a situation similar to 
that which wguM prevail in America if the North and South 
should form independent governments, the ruler of one as- 
serting power over the ruler of the other. 

Another result of such a recovery of Temporal Power, 
non-Catholic Americans say, would be the secularization of the 
Spiritual Head of the Catholic Church ; that the Pope would 
be numbered among mere earthly potentates, and would be 
charged with the same secular duties which characterize the 
courts of political governments ; that He would be technically 
entitled to diplomatic representations at foreign courts ; and 
since the Divine Lord said to Pilate, " My kingdom is not of 
this world," they say that in this day of materialistic tendencies 
the Catholic Church should only occupy the spiritual plane 
indicated by Jesus Christ. They say that the possession of 
Temporal Power would necessitate a Papal army and navy, 
and they substantiate this assertion with references similar to 
this : 

It is, however, objected, the Vicar of Christ should not 
be a warrior. . . If the necessity of the Temporal Power is 
admitted, then the Head of the Church cannot be blamed for 
defending his rights with secular weapons. (Dr. Pastor's His- 
tory of the Popes, Vol. VI., pp. 450, 451.) 

Non-Catholic Americans declare that the possession of 
Temporal Power would beget a general laxity in morals, and 
they cite in support of this opinion such words of Catholic 
writers as the following : 

The fact that the lives of many Princes of the Church 
were no better than those of the temporal rulers gave little or 



35 2 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

no scandal to the Italians of the Renaissance. This was partly 
due to the general laxity of opinion in regard to morals; but 
the habit of looking upon the higher clergy mainly as temporal 
governors had also something to do with it. (Dr. Pastor's 
History of the Popes, Vol. V., p. 388.) 

Non-Catholic Americans say that territorial possessions 
are not necessary for Pontifical safety, freedom and power; 
they assert that mental, moral and spiritual supremacies would 
make the human race the defenders of»the Holy See, and any 
chosen spot on earth a secure place for the Chair of Peter. 
They say that to make the Pope the repository of Temporal 
Power would be to reverse the progress of the world and set 
civilization toward the dark ages. Let the Pope, they say, 
be supreme in His spiritual realm, but let His hands be for- 
ever kept off the reins of Temporal Power. 

I have no opinion to express here as to the validity or 
invalidity of these non-Catholic views. I merely state them 
because they bear on Apaism, and account, in a measure, for 
its existence in America. 

That demands are made by American Catholics for the 
restoration of the Temporal Power of the Pope is indicated 
by the following resolution, which was adopted by the Amer- 
ican Federation of Catholic Societies, at its convention at De- 
troit, Michigan, in August, 1904: 

The Detroit Evening News, August 4, 1904, p. 6. 

We reaffirm our protest against the violation of the rights 
of the holy see and trust that the day is not far distant when 
these rights will be restored. We deprecate the superficial 
view that the loss of the temporal power has contributed to 
the spiritual power of the papacy, and we deplore the fact that 
the supreme pontiff is really a prisoner in the Vatican. 

But how do my Catholic fellow-citizens, who favor the 
restoration of the Temporal Power of the Pope, expect such 
a restoration to be accomplished? Do they think that it can 
be done by foreign intervention or by other force of arms? 



apaism. 353 

If they do, they may find food for thought in these emphatic 
words of Cardinal Manning: 

To restore the Temporal Power of the Pope by foreign in- 
tervention, by force of arms, would blot out in blood the Cath- 
olic faith in Italy. (Purcell's Life of Cardinal Manning, Vol. 

ii, p. 6i 5 .) 

American Catholics may rest assured that Apaism will 
continue in this country just as long as their ecclesiastics as- 
sail Italian unity by demanding the restoration of the Tem- 
poral Power of the Pope. Non-Catholic Americans are sure 
to regard the Catholic demands for the restoration of the Tem- 
poral Power of the Papacy as tantamount to a desire to have 
the Pontifical power control America. 

A Nuncio at Washington. 

The Vatican greatly desires to establish a nunciature at 
Washington. 

One of the noblest ecclesiastics in the hstory of the Cath- 
olic Church in America was the late Archbishop Katzer of 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was my good fortune to enjoy the 
personal friendship of this humble, pious and profoundly 
learned man of God. I shall never forget his interest in me 
and the warmth of the hospitality which I enjoyed at his hands. 

Archbishop Katzer once referred to the subject of dip- 
lomatic relations between Rome and Washington, and said : 

Cardinal Satolli told me soon after he came to America 
that he was sure of being appointed Papal Nuncio at Wash- 
ington, and that he was working to that end ; but I told him he 
never would be appointed, that such relations could never be 
brought about, that from what I knew of the American people 
they would never permit Rome to have a Nuncio at Wash- 
ington and Washington to have an ambassador at the Vatican. 
Cardinal Satolli replied with great assurance that he was ab- 
solutely confident that he would succeed in his efforts to be 



354 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Papal Nuncio to the United States Government in addition 
to being Papal Delegate to the Church in America, that the 
Delegation Office was but the stepping-stone to membership 
in the diplomatic corps at Washington as Papal Nuncio; but I 
responded that I had been a close student of American history 
and had watched carefully the progress of religious and secular 
events and felt that I knew the sentiment of the sixty-five 
millions of non-Catholic Americans, and that that sentiment 
was one of uncompromising hostility to the United States Gov- 
ernment recognizing in any way any religion, as such recogni- 
tion the people believed would be a gross violation of the Con- 
stitution of their country. 

Archbishop Katzer has gone to his heavenly reward, and 
Cardinal Satolli could not, unfortunately for this book, con- 
verse with him about his nunciature plans during his visit to 
America in the year 1904. 

Cardinal Satolli, according to the press reports concern- 
ing his last arrival in America, said on several occasions : 
" My visit has no official object, and I have come only to 
see old friends and enjoy myself." Can it be that His Emi- 
nence was less solicitous about the establishment of a nuncia- 
ture at Washington than he was upon his former visit? Did 
he fail to see an opportunity to press the subject in view of 
the direct negotiations between the Church and the American 
Government concerning the Friars' lands in the Philippines, the 
Exhibit of the Vatican at the great Louisiana Purchase Ex- 
position at St. Louis, Missouri, and the Presidential Election 
in America this fall, for which each political party is seeking 
support? No, His Eminence was not concerned about the 
subject of a nunciature at Washington; he had no special mis- 
sion ; he was simply meeting old friends ; and, incidentally, re- 
ceiving just a little financial assistance for worthy religious 
purposes ! ! ! The editors of Catholic and non-Catholic papers 
were the only individuals who were interested in the subject 
of a nunciature at Washington. There is ample evidence that 
these knights of the quill were interested in the topic. 



apaism. 355 

The Catholic Mirror, the official organ of Cardinal Gib- 
bons, in its issue of June n, 1904, contained an editorial en- 
titled, " Satolli's Mission," and at its close said : 

Just what brings the Cardinal to this country is as yet a 
question. It is not to be supposed that he is traveling without 
a purpose. 

The Western Watchman is one of the leading Catholic 
papers of America. It is published at St. Louis, Missouri. 
Its issue of June 23, 1904, contained the following editorial, 
the writer being a priest : 

The Vatican at the Fair. 

The Vatican Exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposi- 
tion has been installed and the splendid contribution of the 
Sovereign Pontiff to the glory of our great Fair is open to 
the inspection of the world. It is one of the costliest and 
most interesting of the exposition. . . 

Cardinal Satolli did not come as the Pope's representative 
to the Exposition; etiquette forbade that; but he is, in fact, 
if not in name and officially, the Holy Father's commissioner 
to the great St. Louis Fair. 

Never perhaps has so great a compliment before been 
paid a government or a people by the Holy See. The cost 
was great; the occasion was extraordinary in that the United 
States is not a Catholic power nor in any sort of communion 
with the Pope ; the visit of a court Cardinal synchronized with 
the extraordinary departure from all Vatican precedent; and 
these three facts combined make the Vatican Exhibit at the 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition a fact of the first importance. 
This government and the Holy See have been brought into 
very close relations during the past two years. The Taft 
Commission to the Vatican was an epoch-making event. The 
treaty between the Insular Government in the Philippines and 
the Papal Delegation in the Archipelago was an event of 
scarcely less significance. What has been done in two short 
years in the way of reapproachment encourages the hope of 
still closer relations. 

This country should be represented at the Vatican. The 
Church in the United States is becoming a mighty power in 
the politics of the nation, and a power that is not always wise- 



35^ THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

ly used. The Philippines will have to be governed in union 
and co-operation with the Church authorities in the islands. 
There must be hearty co-operation between the civil and ec- 
clesiastical authorities in the Philippines or American su- 
premacy is doomed to be overthrown. This government has 
found out already that it is much more expeditious and satis- 
factory to deal with Rome directly than with her representa- 
tives, no matter how exalted their rank. This consideration 
may prevail on Congress to create an embassy at the Vatican. 
A few years ago, and before the creation of the Taft Com- 
mission, the suggestion of a papal nuncio at Washington would 
have raised a howl over the whole land ; but since that measure 
was successfully carried through we regard anything in the 
way of conciliation as possible. . . . The President is a 
man of courage and resource, and if he thinks that the meas- 
ures of the government can be facilitated and best promoted 
bv means of reciprocal diplomatic representation, he will not 
hesitate to recommend to Congress the creation of a Vatican 
embassy. These are times of sudden and momentous changes 
in popular sentiment, and there is no telling what the year 1904 
will bring forth. 

The New York Sim is one of the representative secular 
daily papers of America. From its issue of Sunday, June 19, 
1904, (page 1, third section), I quote the following: 

What is Satolli's Errand? 

What is the significance of this, the third, visit of his 
Eminence Cardinal Satolli to America ? Is he here on a secret 
mission from the Holy See or did he travel thousands of miles 
merely for pleasure, as he has more than once intimated? Is 
there anything in the present condition of the Roman Catholic 
Church in America to warrant the belief that the Pope sent 
a trusty personal representative to make an investigation? 

These are questions that are puzzling Catholics all over the 
country. . • . 

Some Catholics here are of the opinion that Cardinal 
Satolli has no particular mission, but that circumstances may 
arise to create one before he goes back to Rome. . . 

Another matter which may be responsible in part, at least, 
for his visit is the desire of the Holy See to establish diplomatic 



apaism. 357 

relations with the United States. This subject will undoubt- 
edly be discussed when Cardinal Satolli calls on the President, 
but it is safe to say that no action will be taken, if ever, until 
after election. 

At present there are no official relations between this 
country and the Holy See. It is true that the Pope has sent 
a Delegate here, but he is not recognized officially by the Gov- 
ernment and the United States sends no minister to the Vati- 
can. 

Rome has no hope of inducing the American Government 
to recognize the temporal power of the Pope. The PapaL au- 
thorities feel, however, that a country which contains 12,000,- 
000 Catholics should not be without an official representative 
of some kind at the Vatican. 

Questions are constantly arising, particularly since the 
acquisition by the United States of Porto Rico and the Philip- 
pines, that call for the services of experienced diplomatists on 
both sides. The hierarchy here and the Pope himself would 
be gratified, it is believed, if this Government would send an 
accredited representative to the Vatican and at the same time 
sanction the establishment of a nunciature at Washington. 

The Washington Post is regarded by many as the leading 
daily paper published in the Capital of this Nation. From 
its issue of Sunday, June 19, 1904, page 2, I quote the follow- 
ing: 

SATOLLI IN THE CITY. 

No Light Thrown on the Cardinal's Mission — // Visit is Mere- 
ly to Receive Courtesies, an Ironclad Rule is Being Broken. 

Cardinal Satolli arrived in Washington about 11 o'clock 
last night. . . . No information can be obtained as to the 
occasion of the visit of the former apostolic delegate to this 
country other than that it has no bearing upon church politics. 
It has been emphatically stated by persons who were in a po- 
sition to speak with accuracy that he has no " mission " from 
Rome, but, despite these repeated assertions, conjecture is wide- 
spread, and many are inclined to believe that back of what is 
stated to be a vacation trip lies some momentous problem of 
church policy. 



35$ THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Attention has been called to the fact that the Cardinal 
will dine with Secretary Taft and take luncheon with Presi- 
dent Roosevelt, and in view of his high position in the Church 
great importance has been attached to these functions. Com- 
ment has also been indulged in with reference to the dinner 
given to the visitor a week ago yesterday by Cardinal Gibbons, 
at the latter's home in Baltimore. Cardinal Satolli went from 
New York to Baltimore on the day of the dinner and remained 
that night and over last Sunday, when he departed. 

No especial importance is attached to the dinner itself, 
as the list of guests indicates that it was a merely social gath- 
ering, but it is reported that the two Cardinals had a long 
private conference in Cardinal Gibbons' study, and it is specu- 
lated that the theme of their talk probably was with reference 
to the relations of this country and the Church. The question 
is asked, " Was it about the nunciature ? " and no one seems 
able to answer the query because knowledge of the subject of 
the conversation is confined to the two cardinals. 

The nunciature is still talked of despite denials respecting 
it, and reference is made to the good understanding that has 
for a long time prevailed between the United States and the 
Vatican. In some circles it is thought that a diplomatic re- 
lationship between this government and Rome might be bene- 
ficial to both, and it is hinted that many Catholics of influence 
would be greatly pleased if the President should arrange some 
such relationship. 

It remained for a citizen of St. Louis, Missouri, to remind 
His Eminence publicly, at the celebration held in His honor 
in that city, of the nunciature subject, as appears from The 
St. Louis Globe-Democrat of Friday, July I, 1904, p. 3, first 
column : 

Judge Ryan was the next speaker and he told the story 
of the struggles of the Catholic Church. He predicted that 
some day before long the United States would have a represent- 
ative at Rome and Rome one at the Capital of our Nation. 

Non-Catholic American citizens will please not be dis- 
turbed by any nunciature suggestions. His Eminence, Car- 
dinal Satolli, came to America simply on a visit which was 



360 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

" one purely of love and pleasure," and profit " on the side." 
He did nothing to bring about a fulfillment of the prophecy of 
the distinguished jurist of Missouri!! Please, sensitive Amer- 
ican citizens, do not squeal until you are stuck ! ! Quiet your- 
selves with a remembrance of the admiration of His Eminence, 
and other Princes of the Church, for the Constitution of the 
Lnited States. Did His Eminence not call upon the Catholics 
of America to go forward, bearing in one hand the Bible and 
in the other hand the Constitution of the United States? Of 
course, it will have to be admitted that His Eminence, (ow- 
ing, perhaps, to astonishment at American generosity, or bash- 
fulness caused by the accusation of a Pontifical ancestry which 
was made by a most distinguished American Church dignitary 
and educator, who was formerly Rector of the American Col- 
lege at Rome), forgot to specify which hand should hold the 
Constitution — a somewhat perplexing omission, because 
priests, prelates, Papal Delegates, and even Cardinals, have 
been known to have three hands, namely, a right-hand, a left- 
hand and a behind-hand. But a little forgetfulness like this 
is really unimportant since His Eminence ordered the Con- 
stitution to go forward ! ! ! 

Thank God ! the Constitution will go forward. Long aft- 
er His Eminence has turned to dust, in the shroud of oblivion, 
it will be alive, unfettered by any hand of simulated friendship, 
the protector of American liberties, and a beacon light to the 
world. 

The unwisdom of the Vatican's efforts to establish a nun- 
ciature at Washington should be learned from the impetus 
given Apaism by the sending of even a Papal Delegate to 
America. In this connection I quote the fearless words of 
Bishop Spalding of Peoria, Illinois: 

The Faribault episode, in itself insignificant, became the 
occasion of sending a papal envoy here, and of establishing a 
permanent Papal Delegation in Washington, which, from what- 
ever point it be considered, is an affair of grave moment. 



APAISM. 361 

From the beginning the American bishops, whenever consulted, 
strongly opposed the founding of such an institution here. 

That the Delegate has been and is a source of strength 
to the Apaists there can be no doubt. . . . When the 
organs of public opinion were rilled with the sayings and do- 
ings of " The American Pope," who though a foreigner, with 
no intention of becoming a citizen, ignorant alike of our lan- 
guage and our traditions, was supposed to have supreme au- 
thority in the Church in America, fresh fuel was thrown upon 
the fire of bigotry. The fact that his authority is ecclesiastical 
merely ... is lost sight of by the multitudes who are 
persuaded that the Papacy is a political power eager to extend 
its control wherever opportunity may offer. This feeling, 
which has existed among us from the beginning, led our first 
Bishop, Carroll of Baltimore, who was beyond doubt a de- 
voted churchman and a true patriot, to make an official declar- 
ation in 1797, on Washington's Birthday, wherein he affirmed 
that the obedience we owed the Pope is " in things purely 
spiritual," and such has been our uniform belief and teaching 
as whoever takes the trouble to read what those who have the 
best right to speak for us have written on this subject will see. 

Our obedience to the Pope is confined to the domain of re- 
ligious faith, morals and discipline. . . . We have, and 
none are more thankful for this than the Catholics, a separa- 
tion of the Church from the State. . . . The Pope has 
never attempted to interfere in the civil or political affairs 
of this country, and were he to attempt to do so his action 
would be resented by the Catholics' more quickly than by oth- 
ers. One reason why our representative men have always op- 
posed the appointment of a Papal Delegate for the United 
States was their unwillingness to give our enemies even a pre- 
text for accusing us, as citizens, of being under foreign in- 
fluence. The Pope is our religious, not our civil or political, 
superior. {North American Review, September, 1894, p. 

278.) 

It would be as un-American to permit a nunciature at 
Washington as to install the Pope in the White House. It 
cannot be done without violating the Constitution of the Unit- 
ed States. The political party that even dares to countenance 
a nunciature will be swept out of existence. 



362 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

There will be Apaism in America as long as the Vatican 
perseveres in Her efforts to establish a nunciature at Wash- 
ington, and as long as misguided American Catholics favor 
such an establishment. 

I humbly commend to the Vatican these forceful words of 
Cardinal Manning to Pope Leo XIII. : 

Leave dynasties to themselves ; do away with concordats ; 
give up the policy of Sixtus V. ; abandon all antiquated and 
contingent forms, and all those historical conditions which 
have degenerated into mere ornaments or dangerous obstacles. 
Go forth to meet the people ; apply the words of Christ, " I 
have compassion upon the multitude ; " foster and direct the 
democracy ; prepare the Church for the near future ; and, in- 
stead of having nunciatures, establish more direct relations 
with the bishops, who are the natural representatives and ad- 
visers of the Pope. (W. T. Stead, in American Monthly Re- 
view of Reviews, August, 1903, p. 168. See also PurcelFs 
Life of Cardinal Manning, Vol. II., p. 741.) 

Blatant Boasting. 

Undue efforts are made by Catholic ecclesiastics to im- 
press the public with the power of the Church in America and 
elsewhere. The daily papers are continually filled with the 
accounts oi the doings and sayings of ecclesiastics at home 
and abroad. The non-Catholics become irritated by the sur- 
feit, and are led to believe that the daily press is somehow 
under the thumb of the hierarchy; the result is Apaism. 

I am of the profound conviction that this " blatant boast- 
ing " is done to deceive the public and to mislead the honest 
Catholic people, and I insist that there is an imperative need 
to impress all Catholics who have to do with the public press 
with a sense of the harm, done the Church by not having as 
one of their precepts, " Thou shalt not lie." The Catholic 
Church is losing prestige by the blatant and untruthful ad- 
vertising done in its name in the press. Non-Catholics are 
not deceived. They understan i matters. So much daily and 



APAISM. 363 

bold boasting has the deplorable effect of arraying and solidi- 
fying them in determined hostility to the Catholic Church. 
The Catholic people who know the true inwardness of things 
are disgusted to see daily in the public prints laudatory men- 
tion, with photographs, of ecclesiastics whose private lives 
are horrible blasphemies. The moral and spiritual worth of 
Catholicism should be depended upon to win prestige with 
the American people, and not such nefarious advertising. 

Here is a sample of blatant boasting which causes intense 
Apaism : 

The Chicago Tribune, May 5, 1903. 

QUIGLEY AS AN OPTIMIST. 
Sees Wonderful Growth of Roman Catholic Church. 

Standing the Only Man Among 800 Women, the Archbishop 
Declares He Has Been Deeply Impressed by the Progress- 
ive Spirit of the West — Forecasts the Time When 
the Religion He Represents Will Lead the World. 

" Since I have seen the western parochial schools I have 
come to the conclusion that in fifty years, if things go on as I 
see they are going on at present, the Catholic Church will ac- 
tually own the west." 

Such was the optimistic declaration of Archbishop Quig- 
ley last night before the Children of Mary sodality at the Holy 
Name parish school, Chicago avenue and Cass street. The oc- 
casion was a reception given to the Archbishop by the mem- 
bers of the sodality, and the prelate was the only man in a 
gathering of 800 women. 

" Within twenty years this country is going to rule the 
world. Kings and emperors will soon pass away, and the 
democracy of the United States will take their place. The 
west will dominate the country, and what I have seen of the 
western parochial schools has proved that the generation which 
follows us will be exclusively Catholic. When the United 
States rules the world the Catholic Church will rule the world." 

Another aspect of this subject has to do with Catholic 
parades in which participate regiments of the National Guard, 



364 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

and Catholic military or semi-military societies. Non-Cath- 
olics naturally wonder why the Catholic Church fosters mili- 
tary organizations, and they also question the propriety of 
any regiment of the National Guard being ordered to grace a 
purely religious demonstration. They wonder if there is not 
some far-reaching plan for the aggrandizement of the Cath- 
olic Church in this country in the carrying out of which re- 
liance will be placed upon military drill and prestige. The 
effect of these things is to create Apaism. 

Another form of this blatant boasting in the American 
papers is seen in the accounts which are fed to the public re- 
garding the opposition in France to the Catholic Church. Evi- 
dently a deliberate attempt has been and is being made to lead 
the American people to believe that the Catholic Church is be- 
ing persecuted without a cause in France, and that the attacks 
which are being made upon it there are wholly due to the ma- 
chinations of certain unchristian politicians who happen to be 
in control of the reins of power. The Religious Teaching 
Orders in France are lauded to the skies for their wonderful 
educational work, and bitter criticisms are leveled against the 
French Government for bringing them under the dominion of 
French law. 

Those who are conversant with the situation know that 
Catholic school conditions in France agree in more than one 
particular with the evil conditions which surround the paroch- 
ial school in America ; and they also know that leading French 
statesmen are fully informed of the moral, pedagogic and pa- 
triotic derelictions of the members of the Teaching Orders 
and of the French clergy ; and they also know that those states- 
men are thoroughly informed in reference to the intrigues and 
grafting which are prevalent at the Vatican. 

Analyzed truthfully the present conflict between France 
and the Vatican narrows down to this as its real cause : French 
statesmen are sick of Catholic clerical corruption, and they 
are trying to put an end to it. 



APAISM. 365 

It may interest the public to learn that the Church looks 
with favor upon the members of the French Religious Teach- 
ing Orders finding an asylum in America. Driven out of 
France by the patriotic sentiment which has become regnant 
against permitting French youth to receive at the hands of 
Catholic Religious Teachers an education which at least equals 
in its evil conditions the parochial school training given to 
Catholic children in the United States, they can come to Amer- 
ica to reinforce the teaching staff of the parochial schools 
and to work to secure for the parochial school a share of the 
public moneys. As an American citizen I assert that the hier- 
archy which favors this importation of Religious Teachers 
from France thereby commits treason, in the spirit if not in 
the letter, against America. 

France is proudly called by the Church her eldest daugh- 
ter. The vast majority of the millions of French people are 
Catholics. There must be something radically wrong with 
their religious guides or they would rise up in rebellion in 
behalf of the Religious Orders. 

Great harm is being done the Catholic Church by a form 
of indirect boasting which is disgusting intelligent Catholics, 
and it should be discountenanced. I refer to the publicity 
secured for the attentions of Catholic priests and nuns to mur- 
derers who are about to be executed. Priests often urge their 
services upon condemned men ; such ministrations afford matter 
for publicity by which the public may be led to reason in this 
way: "The Catholic Church must be the true church or men 
in such extremity would not turn to it for comfort here and 
life hereafter." Condemned murderers often become Cath- 
olics to secure better jail rations, since their new religious 
brethren are generally filling the majority of the jail offices; 
and evidently they think that the Catholic Church may use its 
political influence to get the Governor of the State to reprieve 
them. I have no objection to the comforts of our holy re- 
ligion being freely bestowed upon any sincerely repentant 



366 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

criminal, no matter what his crime, but they ought to be min- 
istered to these wretched men unostentatiously, and any 
" grand stand play ' should be eliminated. Catholic priests, 
by the spectacular character of their ministrations to con- 
demned murderers, put a halo of glory upon the brow of crime. 
Indirectly, if not directly, their ostentatious course causes 
Apaism. 

Blatant boasters delight to herald to the world any court- 
esy which Church dignitaries may receive from the President 
of the United States. This in itself may not be reprehensible, 
but, unfortunately, they generally insinuate that the honor is 
a token of respect to the Holy See, and this course begets 
Apaism. I quote as follows : 

Another indirect testimony of respect to the Holy See 
is the satisfaction expressed on a recent occasion by General 
Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, at the eleva- 
tion to the Sacred College of Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop 
of Baltimore. (The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, [Catholic], 
under episcopal sanction, third series, Vol. VIII. , 1887, p. 

379-) 

In a late issue of L'ltalie we find the following: 
" From an interview accorded by Cardinal Gibbons to a 
French journalist we extract this beautiful definition of true lib- 
erty as it is understood in America. ' Ah if you had in France 
a country and above all a government similar to ours,' said the 
Cardinal, ' I would not uphold the maintenance of the Con- 
cordat. Yet I am very energetically partisan to the free Church 
in a free state ; — but would you with the concordat abolished 
have this liberty? Alas, permit me to doubt it. . . . 

It does not suffice the Church to be free. She also must 
have the respect and consideration of those who govern the peo- 
ple ; and it is this which we never lack. The American govern- 
ment seems to take special pains to surround the Church with 
exceptional privileges and seizes all the occasions possible to 
show us her esteem. Much better ; to accentuate this policy, 
the government places in our schools and orphanages subjects 
whom it has taken in charge, and for whom it pays a high tui- 
tion. You see it not only gives us moral, but on occasions, 



APA1SM. 367 

financial support. Understand me, sir, that if our Church is so 
prosperous it is because we have not only liberty, but, above 
all, universal respect ; but in France, the Concordat abolished, 
you are unhappily certain to have neither the one nor the 
other." (The Catholic Citizen, Nov. 12, 1904, p. 1.) 

The Cure for Apaism. 

The Catholic laity in America can obliterate every vestige 
of Apaism by refusing to support the un-American policies 
of Catholic ecclesiastics. I now present a few facts and sug- 
gestions in the hope of assisting them to adopt and to pursue 
this course. 

American ideals were formulated and proclaimed by a 
non-Catholic constituency. After having been sheltered and 
encouraged by those ideals, and after having been given equali- 
ty and opportunity, American Catholics are showing a spirit 
of ingratitude by adopting and pursuing policies destructive 
of Americanisms. Catholic people, what do you think of the 
views urged upon you by prominent clerical and lay Catholics 
— views which negative popular government, freedom of con- 
science, a free press, free speech and the public schools ; views 
which strike at the very foundations of our splendid Govern- 
ment; views which antagonize principles which have made the 
United States synonymous with opportunity for humanity? 
What think you of less than twelve millions of Catholics be- 
ing urged to try to override seventy millions of their fellow- 
citizens? Is it any wonder that you should be regarded with 
grave suspicion, to say the least, by your fellow-citizens of 
non-Catholic beliefs? 

What is the manifest duty of American Catholics toward 
their country? I submit it to their good sense that patriotism 
demands that they support the ideals upon which their Gov- 
ernment has been founded and built; that they give to them 
an unqualified devotion ; and that they do their utmost to 
have them realized in the lives of the entire citizenship. The 
men whose noble words and deeds shed lustre upon the his- 



$68 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

tory of the United States were deeply imbued with the various 
principles which are called Americanisms. They believed in 
and advocated them all. In fact, they themselves were the 
product of them. The governmental, social, intellectual, moral 
and religious ideals which could produce George Washing- 
ton, Thomas Jefferson, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Abraham 
Lincoln, U. S. Grant, James A. Garfield and William McKin- 
ley surely need no other encomium, and they can certainly 
have none higher. Such ideals have but one question to ask 
an antagonist, and that is, " Can you produce as good men? " 
Any ism that seeks to supplant or modify these American ideals 
must wait for a hearing by the American people until it can 
not only answer that question in the affirmative, but exhibit 
the men. 

Catholics should recognize the religious facts in our na- 
tional life. While the Republic is not committed to any re- 
ligion, still the people are not infidels ; they believe in God, 
and this belief is shown to exist by many historical facts — 
the annual Thanksgiving proclamation, chaplains in the army 
and navy, chaplains in the various national and state legisla- 
tive bodies, the cessation of all legislative work on the Lord's 
Day, the " In God we trust " upon the currency, an oath of 
office for chief office-holders, an oath for jurors and witnesses 
in courts of justice, and a Presidential chair which has never 
yet been occupied by an infidel. I earnestly call attention to 
the fact that the spirit of religion and morality is abroad in 
the land. The ideals of our Government are neither pagan 
nor infidel. The ten commandments are woven into the juris- 
prudence of the Nation. The sermon on the mount impreg- 
nates the ethics of the people. No legislature here could, if it 
desired, bind the people to pagan or infidel tenets. The press, 
considered as a whole, is tremendously on the side of righteous- 
ness. A nation that pauses five minutes during the funeral 
of its chief executive, and sings while it weeps " Nearer, my 
God, to thee," is at heart neither irreligious nor godless. 



APAISM. 369 

These facts are full of significance : they show that the public 
is swayed by the spirit of religion. 

We Catholics should not pass harsh judgments upon 
our fellow-citizens because they happen not to be members' 
of our Faith. We may and should deeply mourn their being 
outside the pale of the Catholic Church, and earnestly pray 
for their conversion to our Faith ; but we should not forget 
that with an entire separation of Church and State, and with 
a multitude of sectarian beliefs, our country has so progressed 
that it is in the van of the nations of the world. If separation 
of Church and State, coupled with free schools, freedom of 
speech and freedom of the press has been so fruitful of na- 
tional success in the past, why should Catholics doubt that 
its continuance will fail to. produce corresponding if not even 
greater blessings in the centuries unborn? 

In this connection I deem it proper to call the attention 
of non-Catholics to the groundlessness of their belief in the 
views of certain priests and prelates who hold that if it were 
not for the Catholic Church the multitudes of plain Catholic 
people would become unmanageable, break over all legal 
and social barriers, and trample under feet, in a reign of 
riot and bloodshed, the body politic. Humble Catholic peo- 
ple are human ; they love their homes ; they know the meaning 
of laughter and tears, of pleasure and pain; they need no one 
to tell them the definitions of affection and duty. They think, 
they read, they converse, they observe and they reflect. They 
are not fools, and they are not savages. The Catholic re- 
ligion no more keeps them from relapsing into barbarism than 
it keeps the Catholic capitalists. 

Each sect in America should deal solely with the ordi- 
nary spiritual interests of its members, and should keep its 
hands off the political institutions of the land. Let that re- 
ligious body become dominant which can conquer the first 
place in our Nation, not by a radical subversion of American 
ideals, but by the excellence of its manhood and womanhood! 



37° THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

American Catholics should cultivate friendly relations 
with their fellow countrymen. Let them show the primacy 
of their Church by the superiority of their individual characters. 
The divinity of our Church will win America to its fold by a 
continuing demonstration of its power to produce Christlike- 
ness in the Catholic clergy and laity. Our Church will never 
win the American people by making war upon any time-hon- 
ored American ideal ; but such an attack will work the destruc- 
tion of the body that makes it. 

American Catholics should oppose any Catholic organi- 
zation that creates Apaism. Let them learn from what has re- 
cently happened in Ireland, where was formed " The Catholic 
Association," but there the Roman Catholic Archbishop of 
Dublin, the Most Rev. William J. Walshe, had the courage 
to condemn the organization, charging that it was doing 
" grievous harm to Catholic interests and exposing the Catholic 
religion itself to unmerited obloquy." (See the Literary Di- 
gest of February 13, 1904, pp. 229, 230). 

Catholic people, take your eyes off church parades and 
shows and press reports and look for character. Is our Church 
in America uplifting its people? Are its adherents becoming 
Christlike? A tree may put forth green leaves, it may stand 
high and be the observed of all the trees of the forest ; but at the 
same time it may have the dry-rot and be perishing inwardly. 
So, too, there may be much outward show in religion while de- 
cay is at the heart. My files are full of newspaper accounts of 
the doings of priests and prelates, who are pictured in the sacred 
garments of the holy priesthood, surrounded by vast throngs of 
the faithful, participating in the dedications of churches, in 
corner stone layings, and in banquets, parades and other 
functions, while against these Church dignitaries written 
charges of immorality are on file at Rome. Catholic people, 
this is ecclesiastical dry-rot. 

My dear Catholic people, let us cling to our Church ! Let 
us reverently seek the grace of Her Sacraments! Let us be 



APAISM. 371 

obedient to all spiritual directions of lawful ecclesiastical 
authority ! Let us enrich our minds and cultivate our hearts ! 
Let us live in charity with our fellow-citizens of varying creeds ! 
Let us strive to win non-Catholics to Catholicism by the purity 
of our lives, by our highmindedness, by the genuineness of 
our patriotism, and by the nobility of our deeds ! Let us not 
antagonize our fellow-citizens by championing policies which 
do violence to the lessons of American history and which tend 
to subvert our Government ! Let us determine to be twenti- 
eth century Catholics and to be free from the shackles of 
medievalism. Bishop Spalding of Peoria, Illinois, sounded 
the proper key-note in these trenchant words : 

The attempt to commit the Catholics of the nineteenth 
century here in America to all the deeds and utterances of those 
in the Middle Ages is futile. We do not hold that the Popes 
have never been in the wrong ; nor are we bound, to quote Car- 
dinal Newman, " to defend the policy or the acts of particular 
Popes, whether before or after the great revolt from their au- 
thority in the sixteenth century." If the public law of Europe, 
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries permitted them to declare 
forfeit the authority of tyrannical princes and emperors, it does 
not follow that they are permitted to do so now. We are 
Catholics, but we are also men, and though the essential ten- 
ets of the faith are immutable we ourselves change with a 
changing world. We accept with frank sincerity, with cheer- 
ful acquiescence, the principles involved in the rule of the people, 
by the people and for the people, and are content to abide the 
issue. (North American Review, September, 1904, p. 278.) 

Let us tenaciously hold to the spiritual teachings of our 
Holy Religion : but let us no less tenaciously hold to funda- 
mental Americanisms. 



CHAPTER XI. 



THE EMANCIPATION OF THE CATHOLIC LAITY. 



The Laity Must Control Temporalities. 
For the Sake of Education. 

There is but one thing which can regenerate the parochial 
school, and that is the placing of its management wholly in the 
hands of the laity. Till that is done the parochial school will 
continue to be a curse to the Church and a menace to the Nation. 

Catholic ecclesiastics will bitterly combat any effort to 
take the parochial schools from their charge and put them 
under the control of the laity. The reason may be found in the 
words of Jesus Christ, who said : 

For every one that doth evil hateth the light, and cometh 
not to the light, that his works may not be reproved. But he 
that doth truth, cometh to the light, that his works may be made 
manifest, because they are done in God. (St. John chap. Ill, 
vs. 20, 21.) 

What would the laity do if they controlled the parochial 
school ? They would handle all its funds ; they would let all 
contracts for the erection of school buildings, and report to 
the parish the exact receipts and disbursements. They would 
insist that the parochial school principal be a man of unblem- 
ished character and first-class pedagogic ability and training. 
If the pastor did not fulfill these requirements they would insist 
upon having some one, either clerical or lay, who could. They 
would not permit the parochial school principal to turn the 
school into an agency for personal gain. 



CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 373 

The laity would require that parochial school teachers 
be second to none in ability, and if the members of the sister- 
hoods could not meet the standard they would be put out and 
others secured, even if purely secular teachers had to be en- 
gaged. 

The laity would not permit the abuse and demoralization 
of the parochial school children. 

The laity would require that a proper equilibrium be main- 
tained between religious and secular instruction. 

Lay officials would be responsible to their respective 
parishes, and would be open to suggestions for the good of the 
parochial school. 

In short, the laity would put an end to graft, and inaug- 
urate a reign of genuine education. 

When the laity had done its work they would discover 
that if their priests were men of God the public school is amply 
sufficient for the proper education of the Catholic youth, and 
they would abandon the parochial school. 

The Catholic parochial school should never have been 
started. It will go out of existence when the Catholic laity 
are emancipated, if it is not annihilated sooner by the over- 
whelming power of the non-Catholic majority of our popula- 
tion. 

For the Sake of Religion. 

There never will be a body of conscientious, devoted, pure- 
hearted, unselfish and spiritually-minded priests in the Catho- 
lic Church in America until the Catholic laity are emancipated. 
When laymen control Church temporalities men will not seek 
the holy priesthood for the graft in it; they will enter it in 
obedience to the voice of God. Then there will be priests of 
the character St. Paul had in mind when he wrote, " Neither 
doth any man take the honour to himself, but he that is called 
by God, as Aaron was." (Hebrews, chap. V., v. 4.) Then 
aspirants to the priesthood will be mindful of these words of 
Jesus Christ, " You have not chosen me : but I have chosen you ; 



374 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring 
forth fruit; and your fruit should remain." (St. John, chap. 
XV., v. 16.) 

The laity furnish the money and they are entitled to know 
what disposition is made of it. Unbridled control of the rev- 
enues of a parish places a great temptation in the way of even 
a decent rector, and if he is a degenerate it simply gives him 
unbounded means for rascality. 

In this connection I quote from a work of The Very Rev. 
James Keatinge, Canon and Administrator of St. George's 
Cathedral, Southwark, England, and Diocesan Inspector of 
Schools : 

One of the first difficulties that will beset a man after 
his ordination is money, and usually his first failure consists 
in the improper use he makes of it. (The Priest, His Char- 
acter and Work, p. no.) 

Canon Keatinge in this able work considers at length the 
priest's attitude towards money, and, among other things, says : 

The three dangers that I have called the wine problem, 
the woman problem, and the money problem, attack priests 
in varying degrees. Speaking generally, and with large limi- 
tations, I am inclined to say that the men that are not merely 
attacked but wrecked by wine or women are the weaklings of 
Christ's priests; the men that money wrecks are the strong 
men, the men of grit and derring-do on whom the Bishop has 
a legitimate right to count for good yeoman service in the 
Church's cause. (The Priest, His Character and Work, p. 
112.) 

There are rectors in America who deliberately keep their 
parishes in debt so as to have an excuse for incessantly demand- 
ing money from the people, and they never account for the 
money which they get ; and when they die they leave comfor- 
table estates to relatives and favorites, and heavily encum- 
bered parishes to deluded parishioners. Their estates often 
become the subject of bitter litigation and scandal. 



CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 375 

The rectors of parishes exercise tyrannical powers over 
their parishioners. The laity are given no voice in the parish 
management. They dare not ask a question in reference to 
the expenditure of money which was given to their pastor for 
parish requirements. If they grow inquisitive and offend their 
rector, woe is theirs when they want the rites of the Church. 
Their rector controls spiritual consolations. To unquestion- 
ingly pay money to their priests is the chief privilege of the 
Catholic laity. This is antagonistic to the genius of the Ameri- 
can democracy, on whose corner stone is emblazoned, " Tax- 
ation without representation is tyranny." 

If political representation is necessary for the taxation 
of Catholic citizens for the support of the State, why should 
not ecclesiastical representation be a prerequisite for the tax- 
ation of Catholic laymen for the support of the Church? 

Think of it, Catholic laymen, you have no voice even as to 
the secular studies of your children in the parochial school. 
Why are you denied any voice in the control of your parish? 
It is because ecclesiastics know that such a concession would 
put an end to their grafting and immorality. Laymen, why 
do you not think? Laymen, why do you not act? 

The Catholic people are not stingy. They give at the cost 
of great self-denial. They give far more than enough to de- 
cently maintain and to properly extend the work of their 
Church. They, in fact, give altogether too much. They are 
laden with burdens which they should not bear. If their con- 
tributions were honestly and economically used the demands 
for money would be greatly lessened. If the laity were in con- 
trol of the parish temporalities there would be a painstaking 
supervision of them ; the collections would harmonize with the 
parish needs ; there would be an honest spending ; there would 
be a full accounting; and the hard earned money of the good 
Catholic people would not go to the enrichment of gamblers 
and harlots. Not only would the financial abuses be rectified 



37^ THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

but the laity would be raised from religious serfdom to 
ecclesiastical freedom. 

What need has a Catholic priest for more than food, 
raiment, shelter and a trifle for incidentals? Without a wife 
to care for and without children to rear and educate and start 
in life, why should a priest have the income of a wealthy 
Catholic layman who bears all of these responsibilities? Why 
should a wifeless and childless pastor, who often is traveling 
a large part of the year for his " health/' receive annually 
many times more money than an honest Catholic layman who 
has to coin the hard work of his hands into a livelihood for his 
wife, for his children and for himself, and in addition has to 
support the Church? 

Laymen, why do you not think? I know what I am talk- 
ing about, and when I tell you that priests as business men 
are thoroughly incompetent I am only telling you the absolute 
truth. Stop for a moment to consider ! Do you realize the 
magnitude of the business interests involved in parishes and 
in dioceses and archdioceses ? Think of the buildings that are 
erected, the contracts let, etc., etc. The handling of money 
is secular business. Now, Catholic business men, would you 
trust your business to employees who never had any business 
training? Would you permit your books to be kept by indi- 
viduals who know nothing about bookkeeping? What would 
you think of a proposition to entrust your business to men who 
are untrained and who are fond of wine, women and gambling, 
and who would never permit you to look over their work? 
This is not an extravagant illustration, for it is your money that 
the priests handle by virtue of their relation to ecclesiastical 
affairs. Think of the prominent Catholic business men of 
America whose enterprises engage millions of capital and em- 
ploy thousands of workmen! think how thoroughly they have 
been trained in business matters and what thorough training 
they demand in their employees ! Is it not strange that these 
prominent Catholic laymen, who love their Church and with 



CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 377 

lavish liberality respond to calls for money in its behalf, should 
be denied all voice in the handling of the cash they contribute ? 
Secular business of lay Catholics requires trained business men, 
and none other are hired : the secular business of the Church, 
which is at least just as important as the secular affairs of any 
commercial institution, is wholly entrusted to ecclesiastics who 
are untrained in business, and the trained Catholic business 
men are entirely ignored. 

I do not exaggerate clerical ignorance of secular business. 
Some of the most pious and zealous dignitaries of the Catholic 
Church have lamented and sought to remedy it. When the 
active life of the great Bishop Ullathorne, of England, came 
to an end by retirement in 1888 his clergy gave him a fare- 
well address, and in telling of the reply of His Grace, The 
Very Rev. Canon Keatinge says: 

What think you, in replying to this, did he take for his 
parting counsel, looking back on his reign of two-and-forty- 
years ? What would help them most, these men whom he had 
begotten in Christ Jesus and was now handing over to an- 
other ? He had written on the endowments of man, on humili- 
ty ; he had discoursed learnedly on patience ; he had told the 
stirring history of the days of " Papal aggression ' ' and his 
own share in the creation of the new hierarchy, and now what 
should his parting instruction be, knowing that they should 
hear his voice no more? Taking the words of a great saint, 
his last message to the clergy of Birmingham was : " If the 
temporalities go wrong, the spiritualities are sure to get into 
disorder." (The Priest, His Character and Work, by James 
Keatinge, Canon, etc., pp. 112, 113.) 

The Catholic Church in America has had a most loyal 
support from its female members — particularly from those 
who " work out," and from those who earn their livelihoods 
in other honest occupations. These honest, hard-work- 
ing, frugal, pious and faithful women have given millions 
of dollars to priests and prelates. Many of the splendid 
church edifices in the large cities could not have been built 



37$ THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

without the financial offerings of these noble Catholic women, 
who gave their weekly earnings month in and month out, year 
in and year out, denying themselves necessaries. But how are 
these women regarded and designated by priests and prelates? 
I have heard Catholic ecclesiastics call them " good milkers." 
I resent this contemptible designation. I think that a faithful 
Catholic girl, who earns an honest living, is entitled to as much 
respect as the richest woman in the Nation. 

Catholic women, why do you not think? Why should 
there be such a constant cry for money by priests who were 
wedded to poverty and chastity by the holy vows of their ordi- 
nation ? 

Let us consider some of the evils resulting from unre- 
strained priestly control of parish temporalities. If a priest be- 
comes lax in his religious life he is subject to a fearful tempta- 
tion to plunge headlong into sin by the ease with which he can 
secure all the money he wants for the gratification of his lusts. 
He is his own solicitor, collector, bookkeeper and cashier ! He 
audits his own accounts. He is responsible to himself alone. 
The people pay — he spends. They are never honestly told 
what becomes of their contributions, and they dare not ask. 
Debts, often stupendous, are incurred without their being in 
the slightest degree consulted; nevertheless, they must provide 
the money. " Give me money ! Money ! Money ! " is the most 
frequent prayer of the sordid Catholic pastor. He gets the 
money. Who finally gets it? The Pope? No! The Arch- 
bishop or Bishop? Well, not if the pastor can help it. The 
parish? As little as possible. Schools, colleges, universities, 
hospitals and asylums? They do not. God Almighty? No, 
but generally the Devil through Bacchus, Venus and gambling. 

A supreme need of the Catholic Church is the emanci- 
pation of its laity from ecclesiastical bondage. The emanci- 
pation of the Catholic laymen means purification, inspiration 
and expansion for the Church. 



CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 379 

A Bishop or an Archbishop, by virtue of his temporal and 
spiritual powers, can oppress the clergy under him at will, 
unless . they have wealth or a knowledge of his former 
misconduct. He reduces them to a state of abject sycophancy. 
Independence of thought and action are killed before they are 
born. He can fearlessly treat the laity with superlative con- 
tempt. He can limit the laymen to the enjoyment of but 
one course, namely, " Pay up and shut up !" 

But, generally speaking, a sad effect of his monetary 
power is seen in spiritual things. The control of immense 
wealth and the wielding of gigantic power lead neces- 
sarily to worldliness. No individual, priest or layman, can be 
a multimillionaire and escape the dangers of wealth. Great 
wealth begets a great desire for greater wealth. There is pro- 
duced a hungering and a thirsting, not for righteousness, but 
for filthy lucre. Almighty dollars take precedence over im- 
mortal souls. Politics are played, private speculations are 
prosecuted, and insistent demands are made upon the faithful 
for larger and larger contributions for the work of religion ( ?). 
Outwardly there will be the form of godliness ; but inwardly 
there will be selfishness, greed, lust and impiety. Os- 
tentation will not be absent. A social state will be sought 
which is more becoming to an earthly monarch than to a lineal 
descendant of St. Peter the fisherman. Nothing less will 
satisfy than palatial summer and winter residences, sumptuous 
furnishings, a luxuriant table and royal raiment. Jesus, Mary 
and Joseph and the Apostles lived in simplicity and penury. 
American Catholic bishops live in ostentation and in wealth. 
Truly the servant is greater than his Lord. Clerical luxury 
was condemned by the Apostles, the Saints and the heroes of 
the Church. Ecclesiastical extravagance, pomp and splendor 
never had their genesis at the cross of Christ. They are the 
concomitants of worldliness. They originate in selfishness 
and are fostered by unrestrained monetary power. They bear 
the image and superscription of the Devil and not of God. 



380 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL, 

The possession of great wealth and the enjoyment of 
princely livings by prelates have a most evil influence upon all 
the subordinate clergy. The priests envy the power and the 
luxury of their superiors ; they become infected with love of 
money, they seek it persistently and they spend it prodigally. 
A clergy is bred which is sordid in desire, tyrannical in rule, 
selfish in aim, extravagant in taste, worldly in life and infidel 
at heart. To place priests in humiliating dependence upon 
their Bishop for the tenure of their respective parishes makes 
them, of necessity, his sycophants and subservient agents. 

The lines of Butler seem very appropriate in this con- 
nection : 

" Authority intoxicates, 
And makes mere sots of magistrates ; 
The fumes of it invade the brain, 
And make men giddy, proud and vain; 
By this the fool commands the wise, 
The noble with the base complies, 
The sot assumes the rule of wit, 
And cowards make the brave submit." 

If Rome should forthwith take out of the hands of Bishops 
or Archbishops all Church properties, such action would only 
be putting into effect one of Her rules for " The absolute 
ownership of church property by the civil title being in the 
person of the bishop alone, is contrary to the spirit and the 
laws of the Church." (Baart's Legal Formulary, p. 69). To 
make a Bishop a " corporation sole ' does not meet the re- 
quirements of the Church. Corporations for profit have their 
boards of directors ; sects in America have their boards of trus- 
tees : Why should not the temporalities of a diocese or an 
archdiocese be in the control of a similar legal body? Di- 
vested of property responsibilities the Bishops and Arch- 
bishops would be eliminated from the political arena; their 
worldliness would be curbed; their greed for gold stifled; 
and the spiritual interests of their people would be their only 



CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 381 

care. Who can measure the resultant influence for good upon 
the priests under them? 

The holding of all the property of the Church in a Diocese 
or Archdiocese, by " a corporation sole " who is a Bishop or 
an Archbishop is indicative of a possible deception of the pub- 
lic or a wrong to the individual parishes. What if there 
should be a maladministration of some financial character by 
the ' corporation sole," involving such corporation in great 
monetary losses — would the creditors be able to levy upon the 
various parish properties to satisfy their legal claims ? If they 
attempted to do so would they not be met with the objection 
that the parish properties vested in said " corporation sole " 
as trustee for the individual parishes, and that in consequence 
they could not be levied upon to meet the claims against the 
said ' corporation sole ?" If a Catholic Bishop as " corpor- 
ation sole " is trustee for the individual diocesan parishes, is 
it right to use that trusteeship as a basis for the extension to 
it of unlimited credit? If said corporation is a trustee for the 
various parishes collectively, is it right to place all the prop- 
erty in the diocese in jeopardy by a not impossible malad- 
ministration, through accident or wickedness or sickness, of 
the affairs of such corporation? If a Catholic Bishop as 
" corporation sole " is not a trustee for the various individual 
parishes in his diocese, then the said parishes are without any 
identity in the eyes of the civil law, and the good people of those 
parishes, who contribute prodigally of their hard earned money, 
might see the fruits of their sacrifices used to satisfy debts in 
the incurring of which they had no possible interest. The 
career of Archbishop Purcell of Cincinnati, Ohio, is full of les- 
sons for the Catholic people respecting ecclesiastics holding 
the title of Church property. 

Laymen were formerly Trustees. 

Catholic laymen formerly served as parish trustees, and 
I now quote from the work of Rev. P. A. Baart, a Roman 



382 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Catholic canonist and the irremovable rector of St. Mary's 
Church, Marshall, Michigan, entitled, " Tenure of Catholic 
Church Property in the United States of America," in which 
he says : 

(Section) 28. On June 9, 1784, the Catholic Church 
in the United States was organized as a distinct body by decree 
of the S. Propaganda and Very Rev. Dr. John Carroll was 
appointed Prefect Apostolic. In his report to the Propaganda 
dated Feb. 27, 1785, Very Rev. Dr. John Carroll says : " Priests 
here are maintained chiefly from the proceeds of the (Jesuit) 
estates ; elsewhere by the liberality of Catholics. There is 
properly no ecclesiastical property here ; for the property by 
which the priests are supported, is held in the names of in- 
dividuals and transferred by will to devisees. This course 
was rendered necessary when the Catholic religion was 
cramped here by laws, and no remedy has yet been found 
for this difficulty, although we made an earnest effort last 
year." 

(Section) 32. Soon after the revolution of 1776 another 
method was introduced and prevailed quite extensively. The 
congregations, as such, petitioned the legislature of the State 
for recognition each as a body, corporate. This was done not 
against the constituted Church authority but with its knowl- 
edge, sanction and advice. " The Venerable Archbishop Car- 
roll, who himself took part in the revolution by which Ameri- 
can independence was won," so writes Archbishop Hughes, 
" wished to assimilate as far as possible, the outward adminis- 
tration of Catholic Church property in a way that would 
harmonize with the democratic principles on which the new 
government was founded. With this view he authorized and 
instituted the system of lay trustees in Catholic congregations. 
Regarded a priori no system could appear less objectionable 
or more likely both to secure advantages to those congre- 
gations, and at the same time to recommend the Catholic re- 
ligion to the liberal consideration of the Protestant sentiment 
of the country. It would, he thought, relieve the priest from 
the necessity and painfullness of having to appeal from the 
altar on questions connected with money, touching either the 
means of his own support, repairs of the church or other meas- 
ures essential to the welfare of his congregation. It 'would at 



CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 383 

the same time secure the property by the protection of law 
for the perpetual uses for which it had been set apart and 
consecrated. It would be a bond of union between the priest 
and the people." 

(Section) 33. But proper care was not manifested in the 
articles of incorporation, nor were any definite rules adopted 
in the beginning to prevent infraction of ecclesiastical dis- 
cipline. Hence in some places occurred lamentable scandals 
and such rebellion against episcopal authority as drew down 
excommunication. It is a notorious fact, however, that much 
of this trouble was caused by the absence of proper law, by 
the selfish interference and advice of clergymen, by the coun- 
tenance, at least indirect, of some foreign bishops. 

(Section) 45. In 1822, on August 22, Pope Pius VII 
issued a brief, " Non sine magno," addressed to Archbishop 
Marechal, his suffragans, all boards of trustees and the faith- 
ful in general, in which he condemned Father Hogan and 
criticised the pretensions of some trustees. The Pope says : 
" There is another circumstance which affords continual cause 
of discord and contention, not only in Philadelphia, but also 
in many other places in the United States of America ; the 
immoderate and unlimited right, which trustees or the adminis- 
trators of the temporal properties of the churches assume, 
independently of the diocesan bishops. Indeed, unless this 
be circumscribed by certain regulations, it may prove a per- 
petual source of abuses and dissensions. Trustees then ought 
to bear in mind that the properties which have been consecrated 
to divine worship for the support of the Church and the main- 
tenance of its ministers, fall under the power of the Church ; 
and since the bishops, by divine appointment, preside over 
their respective churches, they cannot by any means be ex- 
cluded from the care, superintendence and administration of 
these properties. Whence the holy Council of Trent, sess. 29, 
cap. 9, de Ref., after having established that the administrators 
of the edifice of every church, even of a cathedral, and of all 
pious institutions, were bound every year to render to the ordi- 
nary (the bishop) an account of their administration, expressly 
ordered that although, according to the particular usages of 
some countries, the account of the administration was to be 
rendered to other persons appointed for that purpose, never- 
theless the ordinary must be called in together with them. If 



3&J. THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. • 

the trustees, in conformity to this decree were to administer 
the temporalities of the church in union of mind and heart with 
the bishop, everything would be performed peaceably and 
according to order. 

But that trustees and laymen should arrogate to themselves 
the right, as has sometimes happened in these countries, of 
establishing for pastors, priests destitute of legal faculties and 
even not unfrequently bound by censures — as it appears was 
lately the case with regard to Hogan — and also of removing 
them at their pleasure, and of bestowing the revenues upon 
whom they please, is a practice new and unheard of in the 
Church. And if these things have been performed in the 
manner in which it has been announced to us how could so great 
a subversion of laws, not only ecclesiastical, but divine also, 
be borne with? For in that case the Church would be gov- 
erned, not by bishops, but by laymen ; the shepherd would be 
made subject to the flock, and laymen would usurp that power 
which was given by Almighty God to bishops. But those who 
are desirous of remaining in the bosom of their mother, the 
Holy Catholic Church, and of providing for their eternal sal- 
vation, are bound religiously to observe the laws of the uni- 
versal Church ; and as the civil authorities must be obeyed in 
those things which are temporal, so also in those which are 
spiritual must the faithful comply with the laws of the Church, 
not confounding the spiritual with the temporal. In order then 
to avoid the dissensions and disturbances which frequently 
arise from the unbounded power of trustees, we have provided, 
venerable brothers, that certain regulations and instructions 
concerning the choice and direction of trustees should be trans- 
mitted to you, to which, we are confident, the trustees will 
thoroughly conform themselves. If these be observed, all 
things, we trust, will be settled rightly, and peace and tran- 
quillity will again flourish in these regions." 

(Section) 46. The Holy See with its usual prudence 
did not condemn the trustee system as such, but it reprobated 
the immoderate claims of the trustees in temporal affairs of 
the Church independent of the bishop. It also denied any 
power in them to appoint or remove priests. To limit the un- 
bounded power claimed by some trustees, the Holy See drew 
up and forwarded certain regulations concerning the choice 
and direction of trustees, which if followed, all things would 



CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 385 

be settled rightly and peace would reign in the Church of the 
United States. Instead of a condemnation this is rather an 
approval of the trustee system when modified and continued 
under regulations given by Rome. The Holy See and later 
the Baltimore councils require, I, That no one be chosen a 
trustee who either at the time of election or just before is a 
member of a secret society or has not made his Easter duty. 
2, The trustees must well understand that it is entirely wrong 
for them either to transfer to their own use on any pretext 
even the smallest part of the goods of the Church, or to trans- 
fer them to others except with permission of the bishop and with 
observance of the apostolic constitutions on the alienation of 
Church goods. 3, Excepting the ordinary expenses, the trus- 
tees are not allowed to spend money, over three hundred dol- 
lars unless the bishop consents in writing. 4, The trustees must 
know that the bishop has the right of nominating and creating 
the pastor of the church and of keeping him in office or not. 
Likewise it is the right of the bishop alone to assign a certain 
sum of money to pastors for their support ; and it is not al- 
lowed the trustees to retain, decrease or increase such stipend. 

5, It is the right of the pastor to designate the organist, sing- 
ers, sacristan, sexton or janitor, school teacher where there is 
a school, and others who are to serve the altar or the Church. 

6, Let not the trustees, without consulting the pastor, make any 
regulation or rule for the parishioners. If, however, any dis- 
agreement should occur between the pastor and trustees when 
considering what ought to be done and they cannot themselves 
settle the matter, the bishop will settle the controversy, to 
whose judgment and decision all will render obedience. 

(Section) 71. To crush out the un catholic spirit of 
trustees Bishop England drew up " The Constitution of the 
Roman Catholic churches of the States of North Carolina, 
South Carolina and Georgia, which are comprised in the dio- 
cese of Charleston and province of Baltimore, U. S. A." The 
object was " to lay down the general principles of the law of 
the Catholic Church and to show their special bearing in the 
most usual cases ; and then upon the mode of raising, vesting 
and managing Church property." The constitution began by 
a statement of Catholic doctrine. It recognized the bishop, 
his authority to make parishes or districts and to appoint 
pastors ; also the authority of the vicar general during his ab- 



386 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

sence or a vacancy in the see. The faithful disavowed any 
right or claim in the laity to subject the ministry of the Church 
to their control or to interfere in the regulation of its sacred 
duty. The constitution acknowledged that the power was in 
the bishop of appointing clergymen to the different districts 
and of suspending them and that no priest was to be recognized 
as such whose powers were recalled. " The churches, ceme- 
teries, lands, houses, funds or other property belonging to 
any particular district shall be made the property of the vestry 
of that district in trust for the same." No vestry was to have 
power to sell, encumber, build or rebuild any church without 
the consent of the bishop, nor could Church rates or burial 
fees be fixed except with similar approval. Money was to 
be raised specifically for the support of priests in parochial 
districts and to be paid to them. Every member was to pay 
fifty cents quarterly for the general fund of the diocese, which 
was for the erection and maintenance of the cathedral, the 
education of candidates for the priesthood, the support of 
missionaries and churches in poor portions of the diocese, 
the creation of a fund for infirm priests and for diocesan in- 
stitutions. Diocesan property was to be held by " The Gen- 
eral Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church of the Diocese 
of Charleston," the board consisting of the bishop, the vicar 
general, with five priests and twelve laymen to be chosen by 
the laymen at the annual convention. There was to be an an- 
nual convention of the bishop and clergy, with lay delegates 
from the parish districts chosen by the respective vestries; 
but the powers of the annual convention were strictly limited 
to matters regarding the general fund and its expenditures. 
Members lost their right by defection from the doctrine or 
opposition to the discipline of the Church, by encouraging any 
unauthorized clergyman, by being canonically censured or by 
refusing to pay regular contributions. 

(Section) 74. In the First Provincial Council of Balti- 
more, held in 1829, the bishops in decree five say: " Since lay 
trustees have too often abused the power given them by the 
civil law to the great detriment of religion and not without 
scandal to the faithful, we very greatly desire that in the fu- 
ture no church shall be built or consecrated, unless it shall 
have been assigned by written instrument to the bishop in 
whose diocese it is to be built, wherever this can be done; the 



CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 387 

privileges of regulars being observed according to the decrees 
and constitutions of the Roman Pontiffs. However, by this 
decree we do not desire to interfere with the method which 
the bishop of Charleston now follows in his diocese." 

This decree practically introduced a new method of hold- 
ing parish property, for up to this time most churches had 
been held either by trustees or by the priest in charge, only 
a few being in the individual name of the bishop. 

(Section) 76. The bishops soon went further and in 
diocesan statutes prohibited any priest from holding parish 
property in his own name. All was to be put in the name of 
the bishop. Regulations to this effect are found in all dio- 
cesan synods held between the years 1840 and i860, which 
continue still in force. This was in consequence of a decree 
of the Fourth Provincial Council of Baltimore, then including 
all bishops of the United States. The council warns all bish- 
ops to attend to the security of Church property and to seek 
the protection of civil laws for incorporation where possible, 
always saving the rights of the bishops. If such corporation 
cannot be obtained then the bishops are carefully to provide 
by will that Church property may be protected from alienation. 
The bishops further are warned not to allow priests to retain 
in their own name any property given by the faithful for pub- 
lic church purposes and confided to them. 

(Section) Jj. Thus we have the pendulum swinging to 
the other extreme. At the beginning of the century most of 
Church property was held by lay trustees; in fifty years there 
was scarcely any which was not in the name of the bishops. 

Why did laymen cease to be parish trustees? The fore- 
going quotation says in effect that it was because they abused 
the trust. I assert that it was because Church dignitaries saw 
that a continuance of lay trustees meant the ousting of drunk- 
en, grafting and immoral priests and prelates. 

To take away from the people the control of Church 
temporalities and to place it in the arbitrary disposition 
of irresponsible ecclesiastics, means the effectual overthrow 
of the first principles of religious liberty, and it is the favorite 
expedient of all ecclesiastical despotisms. 



3§8 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

Laymen, is it not high time for you to think? Is it not 
high time for you to act? 

An Impending Explosion. 

Some day, if conditions are not changed, the great body of 
the Catholic people will discover that unrestricted priestly con- 
trol of parish moneys leads pastors to luxury, wine and wom- 
en, and then there will be an explosion which will jar the 
world. 

Catholics Should Study the Catholic Bible, Particu- 
larly the Four Gospels and the Acts of 
the Apostles. 

I earnestly urge the Catholic people to become devout 
students of the Catholic Bible. In this connection I quote 
the following weighty words from the Encyclical of Leo XIII., 
entitled " The Study of Holy Scriptures," dated November 
18, 1893: 

Among the reasons for which the Holy Scripture is so 
worthy of commendation — in addition to its own excellence 
and to the homage which we owe to God's Word — the chief 
of all is, the innumerable benefits of which it is the source; 
according to the infallible testimony of the Holy Ghost him- 
self, who says : All Scripture inspired of God is profitable to 
teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice: that the 
man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work. 
. . . Nowhere is there anything more full or more ex- 
press on the subject of the Savior of the world than is to be 
found in the whole range of the Bible. As St. Jerome says, 
to be ignorant of the Scripture is not to know Christ. In its 
pages His Image stands out, living and breathing; diffusing 
everywhere around consolation in trouble, encouragement to 
virtue, and attraction to the love of God. And as to the 
Church, her institutions, her nature, her office and her gifts, 
we find in the Holy Scripture so many references and so many 
ready and convincing arguments that, as St. Jerome again most 
truly says, " A man who is well grounded in the testimonies of 
the Scripture is the bulwark of the church." (The Great En- 
cyclical Letters of Leo XIII., pp. 273, 274.) 



CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 389 

Every Catholic should own and study a Catholic Bible. 
It is a sad reflection upon our love for the Holy Scriptures 
that Protestants set so much in store by having a Bible and 
Catholics so little, especially when the latter have the Scrip- 
tures printed under the authority of the Holy See. 

The Catholic Bible contains in the four Gospels the rec- 
ord of the very words and deeds of our Lord and His blessed 
Mother and foster father. It contains the Acts of the Apostles, 
and in them is to be found what our Holy Church was and 
did during her earliest years. Few Catholics can afford to 
buy the historical works of Dr. Pastor and Dr. Alzog, but 
they can all afford to buy a Catholic Bible, and thus have the 
Church history which it contains. 

It is highly instructive to compare the Church in that 
far away period with the Church of to-day. Such a com- 
parison leads the devout reader to a profound appreciation 
of the pure, unselfish and heroic lives of the members of the 
first Hierarchy. Those holy men passed their days in arduous 
service. They endured cheerfully the most cruel persecutions. 
They did not live in palaces, they did not wear purple and 
jewels, and they did not fare royally every day. They were 
poor, they were chaste, and they were obedient to every duty. 
I often wonder what the sensations of those holy men would 
be if they could see the Church and its priesthood to-day! 

Catholics who habitually neglect to read the Catholic 
Bible show thereby a lack of appreciation of the gracious fore- 
thought of Holy Mother Church in having an authentic trans- 
lation printed for circulation among the people, and they show 
woeful ingratitude to Almighty God for inspiring such a won- 
derful volume. 

Let the Catholic people become thoroughly familiar with 
the Catholic Bible, particularly with the four Gospels and the 
Acts of the Apostles. Such familiarity will open their eyes 
to what God expects priests and prelates to be, and it will in- 
spire them to demand that the shepherds of the flock shall 



390 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

show in daily life an honest effort to live as becometh priests 
of God. 

A study of the Catholic Bible will keep the Catholic peo- 
ple from being deceived by shows, and ceremonials, and street 
parades, and gorgeous vestments, and columns of ecclesias- 
tical news in the daily papers. These things may be the froth 
on very muddy water. Catholic people, look for Christlike- 
ness in your priests. Are they like the Savior in their daily 
conduct? Did Christ ever get drunk? Did Christ ever in- 
dulge in familiarities with women? Did Christ ever do any 
grafting? Read your Catholic Bible and you will fail to find 
a single instance where Christ asked the people for money. 
I know it is a fact, and it grieves me, that you hear from your 
altars far more about money than you do about God. 

The Laity Should Scrutinize the Confessional. 

During the Chicago controversy it appeared by sworn 
affidavits that impure Chicago priests were making unholy ap- 
pointments in the confessional with female penitents. 

Catholic parents, consider the demoralization which can 
be, and which I know is, wrought by wicked priests in the 
confessional. ' Your children at a tender age go to Confession 
in obedience to the commands of our holy religion. A priest 
helps a penitent to make a thorough confession, and this he 
does by asking questions, and the questions may relate to 
various phases of sexual matters. If the priest is pure, he 
will go no farther than he conscientiously feels is necessary. 
But an impure priest has a peculiarly agreeable opportunity 
in the confessional to satisfy his depraved instincts. Your 
beautiful girl, with her heart pure and her mind uncontami- 
nated by sexual thoughts, dutifully goes to confession, and the 
impure priest artfully leads her from one suggestive idea to 
another, until her modesty is shocked and her mind filled with 
unholy ideas. Catholic women, of deep faith and unimpeach- 
able character, have sadly told me that vicious confessors put 



CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 391 

unholy ideas into their minds in the confessional in their girl- 
hood, of which, they were confident, they would otherwise 
have remained in ignorance. Now, what are the arts of the 
seductionist according to the common knowledge of mankind? 
Is it not current that that monster undermines innocence by 
delicate and carefully measured attacks, so that each successive 
shock to virtue shall not be too great, and that there may be 
a progressive familiarity by his victim with impurity? Does 
he not act on the philosophy indicated in this well-known 
stanza of Alexander Pope? 

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
As to be hated needs but to be seen ; 
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace. 

Lecherous priests take delight in blunting the 
modesty of innocent girls in the confessional, and in the com- 
pany of their boon companions they revel in recitations of their 
salacious experiences in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance. 

Catholic parents, notice this : a wicked priest takes very 
much more time to hear the confession of a female than he 
requires to hear that of a male. Why is this ? I say that lust 
is the sole explanation. 

What is the personal appearance of many Catholic priests 
and prelates? I submit that it is that of a drunkard or a 
glutton or a debauchee. Catholic people, look at the faces 
and forms of the priests and prelates whom you know and of 
those whom you meet on the streets, do not the majority of 
them indicate profligacy? Many ecclesiastics did not have 
such dissipated faces and forms when they were ordained : 
what has made the change for the worse, the •service of God 
or the service of the Devil? Catholic parents permit their 
daughters to go to confession to priests whose personal ap- 
pearance of debauchery is so pronounced that if those priests 
were men of any other calling or profession those same par- 
ents would shudder with horror at the mere suggestion o£ 



39 2 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

their daughters forming their acquaintance. My dear Cath- 
olic parents, a clerical debauchee of the confessional is in- 
finitely more dangerous to your daughter than a common 
debauchee of the street. 

Scores of Catholic fathers have told me within the past 
few years that they were afraid to permit their children (par- 
ticularly their daughters) to go to confession as they felt that 
they ran a great hazard of being ruined. The truth compels 
me to say that their fears are well founded. To send a pure 
young girl to confession to an impure priest is worse than 
exposing her to the smallpox. She might not catch the small- 
pox, and if she did the modern treatment would probably 
keep her face from being pitted. But if she goes to con- 
fession to an impure, lustful priest it will take a miracle to 
keep her soul from being stained. 

Punishment of Drunken and Immoral Priests. 

In view of the scandals given the faithful by drunken, 
grafting and immoral priests, I urge the necessity of dealing 
rigorously with such offenders. 

The time has passed away in America for looking upon 
a priestly grafter with leniency — he should be spurned. 

A clerical drunkard is a living libel upon the honest 
temperance sentiment of the American Catholic Church, and 
in justice to the noble temperance societies of the Church, 
which are striving to save* Catholic youth from the drink 
demon, drunkenness in the priesthood should be regarded and 
punished as a grave offense. 

A priest, who Las been guilty of immorality, should be 
visited with the severest punishment, a part of which should 
be a life-long banishment from the schools, the confessional 
and the public ministry of the Church. 

In this connection I quote the words of the Angelic Doc- 
tor, St. Thomas Aquinas : 

It is better for the body that the cancer should be removed 
by the surgeon's knife. It is better for the wheat, that it 



CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 393 

should be winnowed, and so be separated from the chaff. A 
corporate body — whether religious, social, or political — gains 
by the expulsion, even though forcible, of those of its members 
who are working against its best and highest interests. Trea- 
son is always a crime. Traitors can •claim no quarter. Men 
who profess a religious life, and wear the livery of a religious 
order ; and yet, under the cloak of religion, are living a life 
of scandal, diametrically opposed to their calling and profes- 
sion, are traitors. They are siding actively and aggressively 
with the enemy. They fall under the penalty due to treason. 
(An Apology for the Religious Orders by St. Thomas Aqui- 
nas, pp. 8, 9.) 

The purging of its priesthood of drunken, grafting and 
immoral priests is the greatest blessing that could come to the 
Catholic Church in America. Such purification holds unlim- 
ited possibilities for good. 

The toleration of corrupt priests and prelates by the 
Church breeds a generation which is Catholic in name but athe- 
istic at heart. Catholic young people have imbibed the spirit of 
America, and they observe, read and think. The ministrations 
of wicked priests undermine their belief in the divinity of their 
Church, and they lose the faith. Priestly rottenness, unblush- 
ingly flaunting itself, shielded and condoned by ecclesiastical 
superiors, turns religion into a farce. It leads the young peo- 
ple to regard the Church as a baptized paganism. Clerical 
immorality destroys belief in sacramental grace. 

If our Holy Mother Church really hopes to bring all the 
people of this earth into her fold, she must pursue a course 
which will convince humanity that in her tiara sparkle un- 
tarnished the jewels of purity, truth and justice. Protestant- 
ism will never be converted to Catholicism by a course of ec- 
clesiastical conduct which punishes virtue and rewards vice. 
It will never knowingly receive the Holy Sacraments from 
the hands of drunken, grafting or lecherous priests. 

The Protestant sects in America enforce a higher stand- 
ard of ministerial daily life than the Roman Catholic officials. 



394 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

It is a hopeless task to attempt to convert Protestants while 
such a deplorable disciplinary contrast exists. Catholic priests 
should be the purest body of ministers on earth, in thought^ 
word and deed. 

The canons of the Catholic Church provide for the rig- 
orous punishment of sinning priests and prelates. 

The Council of Trent, (Session 25, Chapter XIV., de 
Reformat ione), prescribed " The method of procedure in cases 
of priests and prelates who keep concubines ;" and also de- 
creed, (Session 25, Chapter XV., de Reformatione), that " The 
illegitmate children of clerics (priests and prelates) are to 
be shut out from certain benefices." 

Catholic Canons prescribe that it is the bounglen duty of 
a Bishop to degrade any priest of his diocese, and to forbid 
any exercise by him of his clerical faculties, who is guilty 
of solicitation, with either a male or female, directly or in- 
directly, in connection with the Sacrament of Penance — Con- 
fession ; and, in addition, in countries which are strictly Catho- 
lic, to have the offender thrown into prison for the remainder 
of his life. 

Bishops are bound in conscience to protect, by every means 
in their power, the faithful, and to safeguard the Sacraments 
from profanation by clerics who have been guilty of solici- 
tation, directly or indirectly, in connection with Confession. 

If a priest is guilty of the sin of unchastity with a male or 
female, either by word or act, and afterwards absolves, or pre- 
tends to absolve, his accomplice, he is ipso facto excommuni- 
cated, and such excommunication can only be removed by the 
Pope or by some ecclesiastic who is specially empowered by 
Him. 

Why should it be thought a thing incredible that priests 
and prelates in this day prove faithless to their vows? The 
human heart is the same now as it was when Judas betrayed 
our Lord, and Catholic people should not ignore this fact. 
Human passions are riot reformed by the mere flight of time. 



CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION". 395 

If it were possible for priests, prelates and cardinals to be guilty 
of grafting and lewdness in the fifteenth century, it is possible 
for them to be similarly at fault in the twentieth century. By 
obstinately refusing to believe that priests, prelates and cardi- 
nals commit sin the Catholic people of to-day are making it easy 
for clerical wolves in sheep's clothing to give free rein to their 
base passions. If the Catholic people will discard their un- 
founded belief in the impeccability of ecclesiastics and judge 
them as they judge other members of the commonwealth, 
clerical grafting and immorality will be speedily unmasked and 
wiped out. 

Publicity and not secrecy in dealing with clerical iniquity 
is the true policy for the Catholic Church in America. To hide 
known priestly sin instead of publicly rebuking it, puts the 
Church under the ban of Catholic and non-Catholic scorn. 
The non-Catholics claim thereby that the Catholic boast of 
ecclesiastical progress is an empty one, and that in reality the 
Church is the same as She was in the dark ages. The Catho- 
lics see thereby that their ecclesiastical leaders do not regard 
the breaking of God's commandments by priests as being sin- 
ful. One of the prominent American Archbishops told me : 
" The crimes of the clergy must be cloaked." Jesus Christ 
drove the sinners out of the Temple in the light of day ; He fol- 
lowed the course of publicity and not of secrecy. The Church 
must follow the example of its Lord or it will bury itself under 
the opprobrium of friend and foe alike. 

It will destroy the Catholic Church in America if this 
course is any longer pursued : " Get the money ! Have a 
good time ! Don't get caught ! If found out hush it up !" 

Clerical Excuses for Priestly Misconduct. 

Laymen, I beg you to analyze the clerical excuses made for 
priestly misconduct. Catholic priests seek to find in the 
Scriptures and in the lives of the Fathers incidents to palliate 
or to excuse the conduct of sinning priests. Therefore, when- 



39^ THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

ever some priest brings scandal to the Church by flagrant mis- 
conduct the faithful are reminded of the fact that Peter denied 
his Lord, that Judas sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, and 
that St. Augustine was once a profligate. The Catholic people 
are expected to make allowances for their sinning priests be- 
cause Peter, Judas and St. Augustine sinned. Let us examine 
closely this familiar argument! 

What about Judas? He was the clerical grafter of the 
twelve Apostles. He sold his Lord for thirty pieces of silver, 
or about fifteen dollars in American money; this amount is 
but an infinitesimal part of the receipts from the fairs or bazaars 
which are run by the priests whom I arraign. Judas repented 
of his horrid crime and returned the money. Whoever heard 
of any modern clerical grafter returning illgotten wealth? 
Then, unable to endure his remorse, Judas hanged himself. 
It is needless to add that the vital statistics of America are in 
no danger of a surfeit of imitative records by Catholic clerical 
grafters. Neither is there any likelihood of Bishops being 
embarrassed by an excessive number of applications for mo- 
nastic entertainment by remorse-stricken priestly sinners who 
do not want to add suicide to their other crimes. 

What are the facts of Peter's denial of Jesus ? The' Lord 
had been arrested ; He was in the hands of His enemies ; they 
were about to take His life. Peter, braver than the rest of 
Christ's disciples, had followed to the place where Jesus was 
held as a captive. It was a dangerous place for any follower 
of the Lord. His own life might be at stake. At that criti- 
cal moment Peter was accused by a maid of being of the com- 
pany of Jesus. Yielding to his fear, Peter denied. Now, what 
is there in this incident to excuse priests in our day for com- 
mitting rape, or seduction, or sodomy? Peter was following 
Jesus when he sinned — are priestly grafters, rapists, seduction- 
ists and sodomists following Jesus when they sin? Peter de- 
nied through fear ; sinning priests deny through lust — is there 
no difference between fear and lust? Peter, reminded of his 



CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 397 

sin by the crowing of a rooster, went out and wept bitterly, 
and never denied his Lord again : immoral priests, daily .re- 
minded of their sins by the Holy Mass, (the unbloody sacri- 
fice of the body and blood of Jesus Christ), eat, drink, arc 
merry, and sin again. Peter denied his Lord before the Day 
of Pentecost, on which he and his fellow Apostles were 
filled with the Holy Ghost; immoral priests deny their Lord 
after they have received the Holy Ghost. Peter was finally 
crucified, with his head down, for his faithfulness to Christ: 
what sort of holy martydom for Jesus do clerical grafters under- 
go in our day? Bacchus and Venus can answer. 

St. Augustine was an unrighteous man before his con- 
version; but after that happy event his life was pure. He 
sinned when he was without the Sacraments ; but wicked 
priests sin in spite of the grace of the Sacraments, and in the 
full light of Christianity. 

I submit, in conclusion, these words of an octogenarian 
Catholic gentleman : " For the honor of God, don't compare a 
bad priest with Judas, Peter or St. Augustine: it is not just 
to those gentlemen." 

Sinning priests and prelates of our times sometimes at- 
tempt to justify their rascalities by pointing to the greater ex- 
cesses of the Popes and Cardinals to whom I have and have 
not referred in the history of the Vatican. I am sure that the 
humblest Catholic will say, " Two wrongs never make a 
right." 

The Catholic People Should Forsake Drunken, Grafting and 

Immoral Priests. 

I now implore Catholic parents to refuse to send their 
children to parochial schools which have drunken or immoral 
or grafting principals. 

I also beseech the Catholic people to refuse to receive the 
Sacraments from the hands of drunken, grafting or immoral 
priests or prelates. 



39& THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

My requests are not un-Catholic as will be seen by the fol- 
lowing which I have taken from Catholic history: 

A synod held at Rome, in the Lateran Palace (A. D. 
1059), at which one hundred and thirteen bishops assisted, . . 
renewed all the decrees passed against simony and the concu- 
binage of ecclesiastics since the pontificate of Leo IX. A 
decree was even passed forbidding any one to assist at the Mass 
of a priest known to keep a concubine or hold criminal inter- 
course with a woman; (and in the city of Milan in the eleventh 
century, two zealous priests, Ariald and Landulf) prevailed 
upon the people not to receive the Sacraments at the hands of 
the married clergy. (Dr. Alzog's Manual of Universal 
Church History, Vol. II, pp. 326-327, 375-376). 

The above decree has never been repealed. The action of 
Ariald and Landulf received, ultimately, general approbation. 
Ariald was canonized by Pope Alexander II. 

Catholic reader, if you have an evil pastor, I beg you, for 
the greater honor and glory of God and for the salvation of 
your soul, to cease contributing in any way to his support, and 
I implore you to seek some worthy priest who can holily give 
you the sacraments. Under no consideration permit him to 
hear the confession of your child. 

I also caution Catholic parents to be watchful of their boys 
who serve on the altar. Many altar boys fall away from 
the faith because of the unpriestly conduct in the House of God 
of pastors and assistant pastors. " Familiarity breeds con- 
tempt." Many who were once altar boys are now in American 
penitentiaries. I know Catholics who will not permit their boys 
to serve on the altar. 

Husbands should not permit immoral priests or prelates 
to visit their homes at any time. 

In this connection I quote these words of the Angelic 
Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas : 

They, who, in their lives contradict their profession, have 
no cause to complain, either of the violence of the purification, 



CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 399 

or of the salutary result of the process of expiation. Diony- 
sius puts it pithily : " It is not an evil thing to be punished : 
the evil is to deserve punishment." They merit divine judg- 
ments, even though an Attila be chosen " Scourge of God." 
(An Apology for the Religious Orders, by St. Thomas Aqui- 
nas, p. 9.) 

I commend to the Catholic people the forceful words of the 
celebrated Florentine friar and martyr, Father Jerome Sa- 
vonarola, of glorious memory : 

Ecclesiastical power when it destroys the Church, is not 
ecclesiastical power, but it is an infernal power, and is given 
by Satan. I say to you that when it fosters harlots, profli- 
gates, and robbers, and persecutes the good and destroys good- 
living Christians, then it is an infernal and diabolical power, 
and must be firmly resisted and corrected. (Was Savona- 
rola Really Excommunicated? by Father J. L. O'Neil. O. P., 
p. 164.) 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL. 



Historical. 

The American public school has grown up with the Nation. 
The colonial settlers were not heedless of the blessings of 
a common school education, and they took steps to secure 
them for their children. When the Republic came into being 
it was immediately recognized that its perpetuity depended 
largely upon the general diffusion of knowledge. To encour- 
age education the Government made grants of public lands 
to the new-born States. Within thirty years after the adoption 
of the Constitution the public schools were firmly intrenched 
in the very structure of all the States of the Union, and were 
regarded as among the strongest bulwarks of morality and 
good government. 

The public schools of to-day represent an investment of 
hundreds of millions of dollars ; they give employment to tens 
of thousands of noble men and women ; they educate millions 
upon millions of the Nation's youth ; and they are regarded by 
the great body of American citizenship as the chief bulwark 
of the Republic. 

An Absolutely Necessary Institution. 

As an American citizen I appreciate the public school. 
In this country (exclusive of foreign possessions) there are 
over eighty millions of people. The Catholic population is 
under twelve millions, and many of these are very indifferent 
Catholics. The public school is a necessity to the seventy 
millions of the non-Catholic population. The non-Catholics 
will never consent to have their children taught by Roman 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL. m 401 

Catholic monks or nuns, and the multitude of faiths makes it 
impossible for each denomination to have its own schools. 

What sort of a nation would we have if each sect educated 
its own children ? Statistics show about 150 different denomi- 
nations in the United States. Imagine the American public 
school abolished and each sect educating its own youth! Re- 
member, too, the many nationalities represented in our citizen- 
ship! What kind of American citizens would be produced? 
Two generations wholly educated in sectarian schools would 
mean the disruption of the United States. The youth would 
enter the arena of citizenship filled with bigotry. The foreign 
born citizens would seek to make their native language para- 
mount. The English language would cease to be regnant. 
Each sect and non-religious body would become a caste. There 
would be falsehood in instruction originatng in ambitions for 
advantage over other bodies or for greater control of individual 
adherents. There would be an utter lack of national ideals. 
But, more regrettable than any of these things, there would 
develop a spirit of indifference to the cause of general educa- 
tion which would finally culminate in a small literate minority 
and a vast illiterate majority in the Commonwealth. The 
public school prevents these deplorable conditions, and by this 
prevention the Nation is kept from spiritual, intellectual, moral 
and material depreciation and ruin. Each religious and non- 
religious body is a shareholder in the Nation. Hence the pub- 
lic school safeguards the best interests of the Catholic Church 
in America, as, indeed, it safeguards the best interests of all the 
other sectarian and non-sectarian bodies. 

The American public school has been the potent means 
of putting America in the forefront of the nations. Its grad- 
uates have gone into the world, it is true, without catechetical 
training, but not without moral discipline ; the mass of its 
principals and teachers are Christians, and consequently the 
pupils have had the molding influence of Christian personali- 
ties. 



402 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

To bring all of the American children under the domina- 
tion of sectarian schools would turn the United States towards 
the dark ages. It would be a calamity to the Nation, and a 
calamity to the sects. 

The public school means unity in language, knowledge, 
patriotism and achievement. 

The Safeguard of Freedom of Conscience, Free Speech 

and a Free Press. 

Freedom of conscience, speech and press are inseparably 
bound up with a free school. 

The liberty to think, speak and print whatever one wishes 
makes possible a conflict of opinions, and such a contest is es- 
sential in the realm of ideas if progress is to be made. It in- 
sures " the survival of the fittest " in the domain of human 
thought. The weak idea goes down before the strong — the 
untruthful is destroyed by the truthful. If all thinking and 
printing had to conform to the unchanging requirements of 
some human standards what room would there be for that 
attrition of ideas which is the parent of every advance in civili- 
zation? In the domain of religion Catholics believe they have 
an infallible guide, and with that belief I am seeking no quar- 
rel. But even in that domain the world is not stationary, and 
if freedom to think and print is unduly curbed there is likeli- 
hood of a failure to keep abreast of an advancing world. 
While fundamental truths abide, still it is not impossible to con- 
ceive of the method of their presentation or statement chang- 
ing, and changing for the better. 

If this were a Catholic country Mr. Finerty would not 
dare to publish in his paper such an article upon the school 
question as the one I shall quote in this chapter from its col- 
umns. All productions would have to have ecclesiastical 
permission to be published. What would be the result, es- 
pecially if bigoted or immoral ecclesiastics were the censors? 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL. 403 

Freedom of the press will never be abolished in America 
while the people understand the difference between despotism 
and freedom, stagnation and progression, death and life. It 
will last, in other words, as long as the public school. 

The press has been a subject of much concern to evil 
Catholic ecclesiastics. They early recognized the danger to 
their cause which lurked in it when untrammeled. This rec- 
ognition was first paid by one of the most awful monsters 
who ever desecrated the name of man, and he was none other 
than Pope Alexander the Sixth. His own crimes, no doubt, 
prompted him to see the hazard of exposure which wicked 
Church officials run from an unmuzzled press. Commencing 
with him stringent measures have been enforced in relation 
to printing. In addition, the faithful among newspaper re- 
porters, editors and proprietors have been carefully taught 
what their duties are towards the Church in connection with 
their daily employment. The result is seen in the vast amount 
of favorable news to the Catholic Church which finds its way 
into the public press, and the vast amount of unfavorable news 
to Her that finds its way into wastebaskets. The American 
hierarchy has left no stone unturned in its persistent efforts 
to control the utterances of the newspapers of the land about 
the Catholic Church, Her aims, Her work, and Her priests. 

I do not impugn the motives of the gentlemen of the press. 
The Catholic newspaper men act in the way prescribed by their 
priests and prelates, and they do so because they are led to be- 
lieve by them that such a course is for the greater honor and 
glory of God. Gentlemen, I earnestly ask you to reflect. Why 
should not Catholic ecclesiastics receive as severe chastisement 
at your hands when they break the laws of God as the clergy- 
men of Protestant sects have meted out to them by you when 
they do wrong? Let me ask you if one explanation of the 
superior standard of ministerial life demanded by Protestant 
sects and given by their clergymen, which is far higher than 
the Catholic, may not be due to the fact that the sinning Cath- 



404 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

olic priest receives a weak, if any, castigation at your hands, 
while the sinning Protestant pastor is excoriated? May it 
not be true that many of the Catholic reading public, who 
know of the unpriestliness of certain clerics who frequently 
receive laudatory notices from your pens, experience a feeling 
of disgust which begets a leaning towards atheism? 

It will be a happy day for the Catholic Church in America 
when her sons who are newspaper reporters, editors and pro- 
prietors pursue the course of fearlessly and unflinchingly pub- 
lishing to the world the unvarnished Catholic news. 

Catholic newspaper reporters, editors and proprietors will 
be condemned undoubtedly by pious ninnies and by clerical 
hypocrites if they expose falsehood and rascality in holy places, 
but I submit to them the very highest authority in favor of 
such a course: 

" When investigating the Vatican records Leo XIII. said 
to Dom. Gasquet, the historian, ' Publish everything of inter- 
est — everything, whether it tends to the discredit or credit of 
the ecclesiastical authorities ; for you may be sure that if the 
Gospel had been written in our day the treachery of Judas 
and the denial of St. Peter would have been suppressed for 
fear of scandalizing weak consciences/ " 

Protestant newspaper reporters, editors and proprietors 
are also brought under the power of Catholic ecclesiastics. 
Various influences are brought to bear upon them. Threats 
and cajolery are used to control their columns. I know that 
non-Catholic newspaper men have been visited by committees 
of Catholic priests and laymen and threatened with boycotts 
if certain items of news appeared in their papers again. 

Prevents National Stagnation. 

We are told that: 

Wherever the Church has set her foot, she has straight- 
way changed the face of things, and has attempered the moral 
tone of the people with a new civilization, and with virtues be- 
fore unknown. All nations which have yielded to her sway 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL. 405 

have become eminent for their culture, their sense of justice, 
and the glory of their high deeds. (The Great Encyclical 
Letters of Leo XIII., p. 107.) 

But how can these emphatic words be reconciled with 
well-known contemporaneous history? What about the va- 
rious Catholic countries of South America? What about 
Italy, Spain, Portugal ? Cardinal Manning once wrote : 

But what is the state of France, Italy, Spain, South Amer- 
ica? All the light and grace of the Catholic Church is in vain 
for multitudes in those Catholic nations. (Purcell's Life of 
Cardinal Manning, Vol. II., p. 781.) 

If Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Catholic nations of South 
America had the American public schools, what would be the 
inevitable result? Stagnation would make way for progres- 
sion. In the thought of Mr. Bancroft : 

In a country which enjoys freedom of conscience, of in- 
quiry, of speech, of the press, and of government, the uni- 
versal intuition of truth promises the never-ending progress of 
reform. (Bancroft's .History U. S., Vol. V., p. 125.) 

Appreciation of the Public School by Distinguished 

Catholics. 

Bishop John Lancaster Spalding. 

Bishop Spalding lectured in the Notre Dame Church, Chi- 
cago, Sunday evening, January 24, 1904, on the subject, " The 
Catholic Church in the United States." He said in part: 

The American people, from many causes, in creating their 
free schools, eliminated religion. They certainly did not elim- 
inate the teaching of religion because they were irreligious 
or because they were indifferent or because they felt that re- 
ligion is not vitally associated with morality. They eliminated 
religious teaching because they were forced to do so. There 
were so many conflicting religious creeds, so many denomina- 
tions, differing from one another, that it would have been im- 
possible to establish a system which would have taught re- 



406 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

ligious dogmas. I think the difficulty was practically insu- 
perable; and I am convinced that the school system, which 
is not irreligious, not anti-religious, not godless, is the result 
of a condition of things, the outcome of the circumstances in 
which the American people were placed. 

I have the profoundest respect for the teachers of our 
state schools. I know them, pretty largely. They are noble 
women — nine-tenths of them women, I suppose. They are 
noble women, and mostly religious women. Large numbers 
of them are Catholic women. 

Hon. John F. Finerty. 

The Hon. John F. Finerty, a prominent Catholic layman, 
historian, and chief editor of The Chicago Citizen, (the of- 
ficial newspaper of the Ancient Order of Hibernians of Illi- 
nois, and the United Irish societies of Chicago and Cook coun- 
ty, Illinois), in an editorial entitled, " We Must Respect Amer- 
ican Institutions," under date of December 26, 1903, said: 

We believe in the American non-sectarian public school, 
and we believe in educating the youth of all races side by side, 
so that they may grow up as friends, trusting each other, not 
as enemies suspicious of one another. We believe it would 
be a fatal mistake to have the American public schools run, 
or controlled, by ecclesiastics of any creed. As it stands, the 
Catholic, the Protestant, the Dissenter, the Jew and the Con- 
fucian drink at the same deep fountain of knowledge. All 
have their separate religious instruction where it properly be- 
longs — in the church, the Temple and the Sunday school. If 
the latter is not provided by any particular church, the fault 
lies with the church, not with the State, the parents or the 
children. 

Other prominent Catholics, clerical and lay, entertain like 
sentiments. 

Religious Teaching in the Public Schools. 

America has citizens who believe that there should be 
definite religious teaching in its generic and not sectarian 
sense in the public schools, and the Republic has other citizens 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL. 407 

who believe that the religious element has no place in the cur- 
riculum of the public schools. The former class say that it 
is essential to the proper development of American youth that 
certain fundamental religious principles, upon which American 
laws and institutions are founded, should receive positive rec- 
ognition in the public schools, and that they should be directly 
taught to the pupils. The latter class say that positive re- 
ligious teaching is not necessary, that the public schools are 
accomplishing all that can be reasonably expected, and to have 
the religious element in their curriculum would be to induce 
contention and lead to unsatisfactory results. 

A Suggested Religious and Ethical Parliament. 

In 1893 there was held at Chicago, Illinois, a World's Par- 
liament of Religions. The religions of the world sent rep- 
resentatives to it. Distinguished Catholic prelates attended 
and addressed it. It was held in a spirit of brotherliness. Its 
members " conferred together on the vital questions of life 
and immortality in a frank and friendly spirit." What is 
needed, perhaps, in this day is an American Parliament of 
Religions, to which delegates shall be sent from all of the re- 
ligious sects and ethical organizations in the Republic, to con- 
fer together in a frank and friendly spirit on the important 
subject of religious teaching in the American public schools. 
Such a gathering, if conducted in a spirit of toleration and 
patriotism, might bring forth something which would appeal 
to the American people as being sane and essential, and it 
might be adopted by them. 

A Sectarian Dog-in-the-M anger Minority. 

Certain it is that no sectarian minority in America should 
be permitted to play dog-in-the-manger on the subject of ge- 
neric religious or ethical teaching in the public schools, if such 
instruction is necessary. It is the. height of sectarian arro- 
gance and impudence for any sect in America to say, in effect, 



408 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

to the vast majority of the American people, " Your public 
schools are sinks of iniquity because they are godless ; we shall 
take our children out of them, and we shall not permit you 
to purify them by putting ethical or generic religious instruc- 
tion into them." The sect in America which adopts this bigot- 
ed and bulldozing attitude should receive no consideration at 
the hands of the American people. 

A Warning to the Critical Friends of the Public 

School. 

Whenever a Protestant deplores the absence of religious 
instruction from the public school, his words are sent broad- 
cast by the Catholic clergy and press. Non-Catholic speakers 
and writers, when criticising the public school, should most 
carefully weigh their words, not only with reference to their 
use by the friends but by the foes of the public school. 

In the Catholic Church there are bodies of individuals 
whose mission it is to disseminate such information as will be 
likely to conduce to the aggrandizement of the Catholic 
Church. I am constrained to believe that in their policy they 
are guided by the maxim, " The end justifies the means." 
They are always on the alert to find something detrimental to 
the public school, and to circulate it. 

The Non-Catholic Friends of the Public Schools 
Should Withdraw All Support from Catholic 

Institutions. 

Non-Catholics contribute directly and indirectly a large 
amount of money in the aggregate towards the support of 
various Catholic institutions. I submit that it is the duty of 
patriotic non-Catholics to withdraw all support of any nature 
whatsoever from Catholic institutions until the unholy attack 
of Catholic priests and prelates upon the American public 
school is completely abandoned. Do not give your money to 
them, and do not patronize them. 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL. 40O, 

In the present reign of clerical graft you are exceedingly 
foolish to contribute in any way to the support of Catholic 
institutions. I earnestly plead with you to shut your purses 
tight to all Catholic appeals. Your money simply swells the 
wealth and increases the power of men who are using the garb 
of religion to further their un-American and unchristian 
schemes. Every dollar you contribute to Catholic education 
is but the enriching or the empowering of ecclesiastics who are 
determined to destroy your system of State schools, and to 
crush your liberties. I have observed your munificence. I 
know that you contribute annually thousands of dollars out of 
pure liberality to the Catholic hierarchy. You fondly -imagine 
that your gifts will redound to the good of your country in 
the upbuilding and strengthening of Catholic educational and 
benevolent institutions. You are deceived. You are helping 

t 

the enemies of your country. You are assisting those who 
would abolish your schools, close your churches, annihilate 
your fraternal orders, and reduce you to mere vassals of their 
kingdom of graft. Some of you have your daughters in con- 
vent schools, and thereby are direct sources of income to 
their principals and teachers ; you are not wise. 

Non-Catholic people of America, I beg you to absolutely 
cease contributing, directly or indirectly, to Catholic cleri- 
cal grafters. Be not deceived by clerical reputation or title. 
The men whom I assail are by no means exclusive of prelates. 
Resolve now that not one cent of your money shall go into 
Catholic hands until the clerical war on the public schools has 
been frankly and wholly abandoned, and until drunken, graft- 
ing, infidel and immoral priests and prelates are excluded 
from the cure of souls, the supervision of academies, and the 
training of parochial school children. 

Bear in mind, fellow-citizens, that the most serious charges 
of over a score of priests in Chicago, made in 1901 and later, 
against certain members of the priesthood, were communi- 
cated to the various American prelates. These dignitaries knew 



4!0 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

full well the intolerable conditions and offenses complained 
of to the Holy See. Did they do anything collectively to up- 
hold the champions of purity ? Perhaps I blame them unduly, 
however, for I recall the words of an American prelate of in- 
ternational fame, who said, when asked why the American 
prelates did not interfere in the Chicago controversy : " We 
archbishops and bishops dare not interfere for we all have 
ulcers in our own dioceses." 

Some of these prelates are particularly interested in the 
Catholic University at Washington, and are seeking money 
for it, as they allege, from Catholics and non-Catholics through- 
out the country. I take this occasion to suggest to all pro- 
spective donors to this institution that they refrain from making 
any gifts or bequests to it unless they can be first convinced 
that their contributions will be wholly devoted to the purposes 
specified and not go to the swelling of the graft funds of the 
episcopal solicitors. 

It may interest non-Catholics to learn that it is ordinarily 
a sin for a Catholic to contribute money to any non-Catholic 
religious enterprise, no matter what its nature may be. 

Catholic Public School Teachers Should Unite in 
Defence of Public Schools. 

Many of the priests who are attacking the public schools 
have sisters or other near relatives who are public school 
teachers. 

A school which is godless for the pupil must be godless for 
the teacher. Why, then, is there not a ban upon the Catholics 
who teach in the public schools ? Why is there not a ban upon 
the Catholic parents who are educating their children in the 
parochial schools to become teachers in the public schools? 
The answer is found in the words graft and influence. There 
is a return in money from the Catholic public school teachers 
in the offerings which they make in complying with their re- 
ligious duties, and until the public schools can be " knocked 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL. 411 

out " Catholics will be permitted to teach in them for the sake 
of the money that comes back. 

There is an influence, more or less tangible, given to the 
Catholic hierarchy by the absence of any ban upon Catho- 
lics who teach in the public schools. ' Under present con- 
ditions a multitude of Catholics are officers and teachers of the 
public school system ; and a host of Catholics are employed 
as engineers, janitors, etc., etc., in connection with it. 

The teacher of a parochial school graduating, class, in a 
farewell address to her pupils just before commencement, 
begged them never to go to a public high school after their grad- 
uation. She laid great stress on the godless character of the 
public high schools, and finally said, " I would rather see you 
all dead than to see you go to a public high school, unless you 
go there with the intention of becoming public school teachers." 

It is the hope of the clerical enemies of the public schools 
that by having a Catholic majority of the public school 
teachers, and the consciences of that majority in their keep- 
ing, they will thereby be able to bring about a lowering of tone 
in the teaching and thus cause an injury to the public schools. 
While I believe this is the motive of many priests, still I am 
glad to bear witness to the conviction that it has not availed. 
I believe the Catholic public school teachers are true to their 
public trust. 

The Catholic public school teachers are mostly women. 
They are God-fearing, conscientious teachers. They fitted 
themselves for their profession by faithful endeavor. They 
are teachers by choice and by education. They are making 
an honest and honorable living in the public schools. 

American moulders of thought are already asking this 
question: ' If the public schools are godless, why should the 
teachers of the sect that so stigmatizes them be on their teach- 
ing force?" 

Catholic public school teachers cannot expect to escape 
harsh criticism and antagonistic treatment if by silence they 



412 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

endorse the attacks of their priests and prelates upon the public 
school. Their sense of religious consistency should lead them 
to positive action in behalf of the good name and the perpe- 
tuity of the public school. They should let the world see that 
they do not approve of that clerical course, which, although 
allowing them to teach in the public school, condemns that very 
school. Religious consistency demands that the Catholic 
public school teachers shall not be approvingly silent in the 
presence of the inconsistent attitude of their priests and prelates. 

A patriotic motive should also> spur them to action. By 
virtue of their intelligence, training, and experience they must 
see, as other Catholic women may not or cannot, that the pub- 
lic school is the bulwark of the Nation. Patriotism should im- 
pel them to do their utmost to defend the public school. 

Catholic fathers and mothers have interests which are 
deeply related to the public school. If it should be closed to 
Catholic teachers, or if it should be destroyed, the daughters 
of Catholic parents who now earn an honorable and remuner- 
ative livelihood in it, would have to find situations in some 
other sphere, probably already overcrowded. Many, if not all, 
of these Catholic public school teachers contribute to the sup- 
port of their families. It would be no financial help to these 
families to make nuns out of their daughters who are public 
school teachers. 

I will not urge upon Catholic public school teachers the 
sordid motive of their professional protection, although that 
motive is vitally related to their future happiness, and, conse- 
quently, needs no apology for its pressing. But religious con- 
sistency and patriotism should require no additional calls to 
action. 

A league of the Catholic public school teachers in Ameri- 
ca for the protection of the public school is a pressing necessi- 
ty, and should be formed. 



the public school. 413 

An Amendment to the Constitution of the United 

States. 

To set at rest the school question, I entreat the American 
people to adopt a Constitutional Amendment, in conformity 
with certain suggestions urged by the illustrious General U. S. 
Grant in his seventh and last annual message to Congress 
under date of December 7, 1875, and his suggestions, which I 
now urge, were as follows : 

I suggest for your earnest consideration, and most ear- 
nestly recommend it, that a Constitutional Amendment be sub- 
mitted to the legislatures of the several States for ratification, 
making it the duty of each of the several States to establish and 
forever maintain free public schools adequate to the education 
of all the children in the rudimentary branches within their 
respective limits, irrespective of sex, color, birth-place or re- 
ligions ; forbidding the teaching in said schools of religious, 
atheistic or pagan tenets ; and prohibiting the granting of any 
school funds or school taxes, or any part thereof, either by legis- 
lative, municipal or other authority, for the benefit or in aid, 
directly or indirectly, of any religious sect or denomination, 
or in aid or for the benefit of any other object of any nature 
or kind whatever. . . 

As this will be the last annual message which I shall have 
the honor of transmitting to Congress before my successor is 
chosen, I will repeat or recapitulate the questions which I 
deem of vital importance which may be legislated upon or set- 
tled at this session; First. That the States shall be required 
to afford the opportunity of a good common school education 
to every child within their limits. Second. No sectarian 
tenets shall ever be taught in any school supported in whole or 
in part by the State, Nation, or by the proceeds of any tax 
levied upon any community. . . Third. Declare Church and 
State forever separate and distinct, but each free within their 
proper spheres. (Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 
Vol. VII., pp. 334, 356.) 

The name of U. S. Grant is as imperishable as the country 
which he so loyally and signally served. His words are 
weighty. The Constitutional Amendment, so far as it relates 



414 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL. 

to public money for sectarian purposes and perpetual sep~ 
aration of Church and State, which he advocated in the fore- 
going quotation, can be adopted now because there is an over- 
whelming majority of Americans intensely in favor of it. 

That majority may never grow less; and, yet, it may. 
More than one religious sect in America has ambitions to be 
fulfilled at the public's expense. This Nation is not here for a 
day ; centuries of time lie before it. No one can tell what new 
ism may arise which will enlist a large following and develop 
tendencies at variance with fundamental Americanisms. If 
various denominations, old and new, unite in insisting upon 
receiving public favor, a condition might ensue which would 
vitally alter the present course of things. Let us, then, have 
our National Constitution so outspoken upon Church and 
State questions that no ism will have any room to quibble! 
Let the Constitution be so plain and positive that any 
ism which shows a desire for public money or special 
privilege will thereby be stamped as a subverter of the Common- 
wealth. 

There should be an authoritative National Supervision of 
the education of the children of the Nation both in public and 
in non-public schools. Certain standards should be fixed, and 
the Nation should insist upon their maintenance. If any 
denomination prefers to educate the children of its adherents 
in schools of its own, let there be insistence upon the main- 
tenance of the Nation's standards regardless of whatever else 
may be in the curriculum. No ism should be allowed to in- 
culcate in the minds of prospective citizens teachings which 
tend to the overthrow of the Republic. 

The Catholic Teaching Orders are hostile to the Ameri- 
can public school. They would gladly destroy it if they could. 
That public school which hires a member of a Catholic Teach- 
ing Order to teach its children is giving employment to its 
deadly enemy. 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL. 415 

Under no consideration should monks and nuns, whether 
clad in the garb of their Religious Orders or in secular attire, 
be permitted to teach in the public schools. 

Conclusion. 

The American people should set themselves as a wall of 
granite against even the shadow of sectarian interference with 
the bulwark of their liberties, the public school. Their dec- 
laration should be : We will treat as a deadly enemy of the 
Nation any sect that attempts to undermine the public school, 
or that tries to get public funds. 

The parochial school, as it is, is a curse to the Church and 
a menace to the Nation. ■ 

Let no one imagine that it has been a pleasant task to make 
the appalling exposures which this book contains. It has been 
a labor of sorrow and it would not have been performed had it 
not been for an overwhelming conviction that it had to be done 
if I would be true to my Country, to my Church, and to my God. 








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